3 high-ceiling Pirates prospects to watch in 2025

Esmerlyn Valdez

Esmerlyn Valdez had a decent year at A-Ball. In 435 plate appearances, the first baseman/outfielder turned in a .226/.352/.464 triple-slash. Valdez provided a ton of pop, going yard 22 times with a .237 isolated slugging percentage. He led all A-Ball hitters in home runs and had the third-highest qualified ISO. One of the two players ahead of Valdez in ISO was Toronto Blue Jays top prospect Arjun Nimmala.

Valdez also was a patient batter, as 13.6% of his plate appearances ended in a walk. However, on the unfortunate flip side, 30.6% of his trips to the plate ended with him walking back to the dugout on strike three. Despite the number of Ks, Valdez still had a strong .384 wOBA and 132 wRC+. Both stats were among the top 15 of qualified A-Ball hitters in 2024.

Beyond that performance, Valdez also has some promising data. His 11% barrel percentage was above the 90th percentile, while his average exit velocity of 88.1 MPH was in the 81st percentile. Valdez’s expected weighted on-base average (xwOBA) was also excellent, clocking in around the 86th percentile. Valdez also didn’t make poor swing decisions either, as he was above average in both in-zone and out-of-zone swing rates, but the question whether he can cut down on the swing-and-miss enough to make it count. Valdez was clearly below average in both whiff percentage and strikeout rate.

To Valdez’s credit, he did a lot better cutting down strikeouts as the season went on. The final two months of Valdez’s season saw him cut his K% down to 23.9% while maintaining a 14.3% barrel percentage and .378 xwOBA in 176 plate appearances. His whiff rate of 29.5% still wasn’t good, but was a massive improvement over the 36.1% rate he had prior to this line of demarcation. Throughout the last month of the year, he had just a 21.4% K% and 30.5% whiff rate, albeit in an even smaller sample size of 98 plate appearances.

Valdez has the power potential to be an annual 20+ home run hitter. If he can continue to chip away at the swing-and-miss in his game, the power will only continue to improve. Valdez could very well end up being a potential long-term answer at first base in the near future.