Pirates Designate Enmanuel Valdez For Assignment

The Pirates have designated infielder Enmanuel Valdez for task, per a membership announcement. His 40-man roster spot goes to the sport’s No. 1 total prospect, shortstop Konnor Griffin, whose beforehand introduced promotion to the majors is now finalized.

Valdez has seen motion in components of three main league seasons, together with 102 plate appearances with Pittsburgh final 12 months. The 27-year-old carries a lifetime .230/.288/.392 batting line within the majors and has tallied 14 massive league house runs in 474 plate appearances. He’s a left-handed hitter who’s spent the majority of his time at second base but additionally has expertise at each infield corners and in each outfield corners.

Initially an Astros signee out of his native Dominican Republic, Valdez went from Houston to Boston alongside Wilyer Abreu within the lopsided deal that shipped catcher Christian Vazquez to the Astros in 2022. The Purple Sox traded him to the Pirates in Dec. 2024, buying minor league reliever Joe Vogatsky in return.

Whereas Valdez has but to hit a lot within the majors, he’s a profession .250/.343/.467 hitter in components of 4 Triple-A seasons. He’s graded out as a poor second base defender within the majors however posted above-average marks in a small pattern of 190 innings at first base. Valdez is in his remaining minor league choice 12 months, so any workforce that plucks him off waivers or swings a small commerce for him would have the ability to ship him to Triple-A with out restriction — at the very least for the rest of the present season. (He’ll be out of choices subsequent 12 months.)

The Pirates can commerce Valdez or place him on waivers at any level within the subsequent 5 days. Waivers are a 48-hour course of, so inside one week’s time the result of this morning’s DFA will likely be recognized.