Breakout infielder's surprise surgery is the last thing Pirates offense needed

As the Pirates' offensive issues continue to linger, one of the very few bats that found success for the team will be out for the remainder of the season. Enmanuel Valdez went down with a shoulder injury after his hot start to the season, and quickly went to the 60-day injured list a few days after the initial injury.

To compound the madness, Colin Beazley of the Pittsburgh Post Gazette reported on Wednesday that Valdez underwent surgery on his left shoulder and is estimated to return to competitive play in six months. That means he'll be available to return to games in November, which ... formally marks an end to his 2025 season.

Fans may not exactly treat a guy with an 81 wRC+ as a major loss, but prior to the week before he got hurt, he had started to break out and was a top five hitter in the lineup.

In April, Valdez put together an OPS of .777, coming from an on-base percentage of .333 and a .444 slugging percentage. He belted two home runs, two triples, and three doubles, while driving in 11 runs. Primarily thrown in at cleanup by Derek Shelton, he definitely was starting to break out before getting hurt.

Enmanuel Valdez's season-ending surgery is the last thing this Pirates offense needed.

The Pirates' offense is really close to setting a major league record for consecutive games with scoring four runs or less. That has pushed Pittsburgh to 17 games back of .500. Although they weren't great in April, they did finish with an 11-15 record. Valdez was a contributor to that success, and evidently, losing his breaking-out bat has hurt the team.

Fortunately for the Pirates, Spencer Horwitz recently returned and Nick Gonzales is on a rehab assignment, so Valdez would've lost his starting job regardless; he was only up in the first place in the wake of the Gonzales injury.

The Pirates need whatever they can get to assist in reviving this offense. Valdez was doing just that, but his window of opportunity has closed for 2025. Now, they'll need Horwitz and Gonzales to give them all of the offense he was bringing and more. After all, they were the initial projected starters, and even with Valdez, this was an under-.500 team that now must play like an above-.500 club to pull back into respectability.