AAA · RF · Pittsburgh Pirates
Esmerlyn Valdez
B/T R/R · 6' 2" · 234 lb · born San Juan La Maguana, Dominican Republic · age 22 · MLB debut 2026-05-22
Scout’s note
Signed out of San Juan de la Maguana, Valdez hit his way from Bradenton to Pittsburgh in four seasons and is slugging 1.107 with ten homers through his first 28 big-league games. Our board flagged the contact before the debut. Pre-consensus means exactly this.
The Wire
▲ On the field: Fans and analysts praise Pirates rookie Esmerlyn Valdez for his power surge of 10 home runs in 27 games and strong recent form as a top ROTY candidate.
▲ On cardboard: Collectors note Valdez Bowman autos heating up sharply with prices climbing past 100 dollars and Topps Now cards selling for six dollars.
X chatter, trailing 7 days · as of 2026-07-13 · newest post 2026-07-12 · summarized by Grok (xAI) · how this works →
The line
Last 14 days: 13 G · .346 AVG · 5 HR · 17 RBI · 1.148 OPS
| Year | Team | Lvl | G | AB | R | H | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | AVG | OPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2023 | Bradenton Marauders | A | 8 | 20 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 9 | .250 | .748 |
| 2024 | Bradenton Marauders | A | 107 | 358 | 56 | 81 | 22 | 61 | 4 | 59 | 133 | .226 | .816 |
| 2025 | Greensboro Grasshoppers | A+ | 72 | 277 | 46 | 84 | 20 | 57 | 2 | 31 | 77 | .303 | .977 |
| 2025 | Altoona Curve | AA | 51 | 181 | 29 | 47 | 6 | 29 | 1 | 25 | 53 | .260 | .772 |
| 2026 | Indianapolis Indians | AAA | 56 | 192 | 33 | 49 | 13 | 38 | 0 | 41 | 51 | .255 | .914 |
| 2026 | Pittsburgh Pirates | MLB | 28 | 94 | 21 | 29 | 10 | 27 | 0 | 10 | 38 | .309 | 1.084 |
| MLB CAREER | 28 | 94 | 21 | 29 | 10 | 27 | 0 | 10 | 38 | .309 | 1.084 | ||
Bio & season lines: MLB StatsAPI · refreshed nightly · abbreviations →
Current signals
The read: Valdez's EV95 of 110.6 sits in the 99th percentile of the 367 AAA bats we track (median 105.3), and on the MLB value grid his contact grades at 0.48. The tools are ahead of the market — that's what pre-consensus means.
- EV95 (mph)
- 110.64
- xVal (MLB grid)
- 0.4822
- Age
- 22
The card rack
FlagshipEsmerlyn Valdez #CPA-EV · 2024 Bowman Chrome Prospects Autograph · 1368 recent sales
His flagship is his rookie — one card, one market.
Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases. · Flagship = his most-traded card (the market’s reference); the rookie = the top card of his first card year. As of July 13, 2026 · trend prints nightly — 1 night archived so far · prices via SportsCardsPro · what these terms mean
Collect Esmerlyn Valdez
If the signal is right, the cardboard usually finds out later. Current listings:
Esmerlyn Valdez cards on eBay →Paid link — as an eBay Partner, FVR earns from qualifying purchases.
Not financial advice. We take positions only after publication — never before. Misses stay on the record.