{"id":216738,"date":"2026-06-11T19:44:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:44:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216738\/"},"modified":"2026-06-11T19:44:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-11T19:44:12","slug":"with-cruz-on-il-esmerlyn-valdez-called-up-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/216738\/","title":{"rendered":"With Cruz on IL, Esmerlyn Valdez called up again"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pirates have recalled outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez from Triple-A Indianapolis ahead of their rubber match game against the Los Angeles Dodgers.<\/p>\n<p>To make room on the roster, the Pirates have optioned infielder Davis Wendzel to Indy.<\/p>\n<p>Valdez (6\u20192\u201d, 234 pounds), the Pirates number nine overall prospect, appeared in five game for the Pirates this season during his first callup.<\/p>\n<p>He had two hits in the MLB, both home runs, and was batting .125 over a small sample size of 16 at bats.<\/p>\n<p>Valdez is batting .255 in the minors with 13 home runs, 49 his and 38 RBI over 192 at bats.<\/p>\n<p>Valdez\u2019s latest stint in Pittsburgh should be a longer one, with Oneil Cruz currently on the Injured List with multiple fractures in his left hand.<\/p>\n<p>Wendzel started at first base on Tuesday night, going 0-for-4.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Pirates have recalled outfielder Esmerlyn Valdez from Triple-A Indianapolis ahead of their rubber match game against the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4662,14708,1423,73,75,74,10997],"class_list":["post-216738","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-pittsburgh","tag-baseball","tag-esmerlyn-valdez","tag-mlb","tag-pittsburgh","tag-pittsburgh-headlines","tag-pittsburgh-news","tag-pittsburgh-pirates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216738","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=216738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}