Esmerlyn Valdez will almost certainly not keep up his recent superhuman pace, but that’s no reason to avoid him. We can’t simply trigger the regression alarm whenever a guy begins playing a little too well. Valdez has been as scorching-hot as any hitter in the game who isn’t Junior Caminero, so he can regress a fair amount and still remain incredibly useful.When a guy has concourse power, he probably isn’t a total fraud:
Esmerlyn Valdez hits one 461 FEET!
Look at where this baseball lands 😳 pic.twitter.com/gHJcOznQAb
— MLB (@MLB) June 28, 2026Entering Monday, Valdez has gone 20-for-47 with four home runs, 10 extra-base hits and 12 RBI over his previous 13 games for the Pirates, which is, of course, silly and unsustainable. For the year, he’s slashing .310/.359/.662 at the big-league level with six homers in just 78 plate appearances. He wasn’t quite as dominant at Triple A earlier in the season, but he was definitely cooking (.914 OPS). We shouldn’t expect him to completely nosedive any time soon.In the near-term, Valdez has an uncluttered path to daily at-bats with both Oneil Cruz and Spencer Horwitz sidelined by injury. If the 22-year-old continues crushing — even at a less cartoonish level — he’ll stick around. In recent games, he’s occupied the cleanup spot for Pittsburgh. He remains lightly rostered at the major platforms, however, despite his obnoxious power upside and a friendly late-July schedule. He gets a few user-friendly pitching rotations following the break, including the Cubs, Diamondbacks and Reds.Kahlil Watson appears to have the green lightWatson stole a pair of bags in back-to-back games against the White Sox over the weekend, which gives him six on the season in MLB, plus another 15 at Triple-A Columbus. The 23-year-old has gone 13-for-43 over his past dozen games for Cleveland with four extra-base hits, so he’s obviously beginning to get comfortable. Watson hasn’t hit for average at any minor-league stop, but he’s a willing walker with on-base ability and 20-HR/20-SB (20/30?) potential. He’s a deep league outfield add with obvious upside.
