The magician has taken center stage in Major League Baseball.
For his first act, he’s making the ball disappear regularly.
Four games in a row, to be exact.
Pirates outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez has been a lightning rod for the offense over the past week, smashing six home runs in his first 16 career games.
In need of a spark with Oneil Cruz and Spencer Horwitz likely out until after the All-Star break, Valdez has provided extra power to a group that has already hit 108.
They only hit 117 all of last year. Thanks Brandon Lowe and Ryan O’Hearn.
Known as “the magician” and to analyst Michael McKenry as “the magic stick”, the Pirates might have found something here.
He has as good of power as anyone the Pirates have developed in over a decade, evident by the stunning 461-foot home run he hit on Sunday.
Valdez has earned the right to play every day.
According to Sportsradar, Valdez is the first player in Pirates history to record 10 or more extra-base hits in his first 50 MLB plate appearances, dating back 125 years to 1901.
How often can this front office claim organizational success in developing a power hitter?
It felt like the power grid failed for half a decade with a Pirates offense that couldn’t find water if it fell out of a boat into the Allegheny River, let alone a home run ball, landing on it. At least other than Oneil Cruz.
Valdez catapulted his way to the big leagues after starting 2025 in High-A.
Since, he’s hit 45 home runs in 195 games and is batting second for the Bucs on Tuesday against potential All-Star Game starter and Cy Young candidate Cristopher Sanchez.
It’s about time the Pirates have a developmental story similar to the Brewers and Cardinals, where players you seemingly never heard of before blossom into middle of the order bars and borderline all-stars.
In 45 at-bats, Valdez is hitting .289 with four doubles, six homers, 12 RBIs, an OPS of 1.138, and an impressive .360 on-base percentage.
Over the last seven games, Valdez has 11 hits in 21 at-bats with seven RBIs from the right side of the plate.
That’s good enough to make any Pirates fan hoist their cone, jump for joy, and try some magic themselves.
Could it be an outlier? Possibly. But don’t ruin the fun.
The Pirates desperately need to tread water, or better yet, finish a few games over .500 before the break with series against the Phillies, Nationals, Braves, and Brewers.
Some might say it will be an uphill battle and one the bullpen can’t handle, but like past pre-ASG weeks and especially at PNC Park during 2013-15, maybe, just maybe, all the Pirates really need is a little magic.
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