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\t\t\t\t\t \n\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s the cost of a milestone home run ball? In this case, one signed bat from the rookie who hit the blast, and one official cap.After Pittsburgh Pirates rookie outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez hit his first career home run in Sunday\u2019s 4-1 win at Toronto, his teammates in the bullpen went to work to get the ball back for him.Looking for more news in your area | Subscribe to the WTAE YouTube ChannelValdez was promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis on Friday and had gone 0 for 7 with five strikeouts before his two-run blast off Chase Lee in the sixth inning. The 345-foot drive landed in a standing-room section beyond the right field wall, where a fence separates fans from the visitor\u2019s bullpen. The ball ended up in the hands of a young fan, who was soon in negotiations with Pirates reliever Justin Lawrence. As talks progressed, the Pirates righty used hand signals to request a signed bat from the dugout. Valdez signed a bat and reliever Dennis Santana brought it out to the bullpen, then leaned around the fence to make the exchange.Download the WTAE app to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters to get breaking news in your inbox.\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tTORONTO (AP) \u2014 \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n What\u2019s the cost of a milestone home run ball? In this case, one signed bat from the rookie who hit the blast, and one official cap.<\/p>\n After Pittsburgh Pirates rookie outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez hit his first career home run in Sunday\u2019s 4-1 win at Toronto<\/a>, his teammates in the bullpen went to work to get the ball back for him.<\/p>\n Looking for more news in your area | Subscribe to the WTAE YouTube Channel<\/a><\/p>\n Valdez was promoted from Triple-A Indianapolis<\/a> on Friday and had gone 0 for 7 with five strikeouts before his two-run blast off Chase Lee in the sixth inning. The 345-foot drive landed in a standing-room section beyond the right field wall, where a fence separates fans from the visitor\u2019s bullpen. <\/p>\n \t\t \n\t\tMark Blinch\/Getty Images\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tTORONTO, CANADA – MAY 24: Esmerlyn Valdez #55 of the Pittsburgh Pirates celebrates his first MLB career home run against the Toronto Blue Jays during the sixth inning in their MLB game at the Rogers Centre on May 24, 2026 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. (Photo by Mark Blinch\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n The ball ended up in the hands of a young fan, who was soon in negotiations with Pirates reliever Justin Lawrence<\/a>. As talks progressed, the Pirates righty used hand signals to request a signed bat from the dugout. <\/p>\n Valdez signed a bat and reliever Dennis Santana brought it out to the bullpen, then leaned around the fence to make the exchange.<\/p>\n Download the WTAE app<\/a> to stay connected with breaking news. Sign up for our email newsletters<\/a> to get breaking news in your inbox.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pirates bullpen makes deal, hands over signed bat in swap for rookie outfielder\u2019s first HR ball Pittsburgh rookie…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201913,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[44800,13174,89170,71650,22628,14708,14087,6976,89171,7683,23788,41188,2092,23785,18203,73,75,74,10997,89172,2707],"class_list":["post-201912","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-bat","tag-blast","tag-bullpen","tag-chase-lee","tag-deal","tag-esmerlyn-valdez","tag-fan","tag-fence","tag-first-career-home-run","tag-hand","tag-home-run","tag-justin-lawrence","tag-more-news","tag-pirate","tag-pirates","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-pirates","tag-right-field-wall","tag-visitor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201912","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201912"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201912\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201913"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201912"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201912"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201912"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n\t\t\t\t\t\tBy IAN HARRISON Associated Press
\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n![\"TORONTO,](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0bf39947-ba62-4fac-85c8-dcbaaf04721b.jpg\"\/ "\\"Esmerlyn")
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