Pirates rookie just proved how bad Guardians offense is with power surge

Over the course of two days this weekend, Pirates rookie Esmerlyn Valdez continued the red-hot start to his career by depositing two balls into the seats at Progressive Field. 

His first blast came on Saturday in the sixth inning of Game 1 when he turned around a Gavin Williams slider to right-field for a two-run blast that helped extend Pittsburgh’s lead. His second homer came a little more than 24 hours later when he blasted a two-run home run in the ninth inning of Sunday’s blowout win. 

While Valdez has recorded just 105 at-bats this season, he’s already hit 12 home runs this season, which would lead the Guardians. That’s right: A guy who didn’t make his MLB debut until the end of May has already slugged more home runs than any Guardian this season. 

Esmerlyn Valdez just showed how bad the Guardians’ offense is

While that stat would look bad enough on its own, it gets even worse when you consider that Angel Martínez is currently tied for the team lead in home runs (11) despite having not played in a game in more than a month. 

Yeah, it’s been that bad. 

In fact, three of the Guardians’ top four home run hitters have all missed time this season, as Martínez is tied with Chase DeLauter (who suffered a rib injury in June), while Kyle Manzardo and José Ramírez (who is currently on the IL) are tied for second with 10. 

Meanwhile, all of Rhys Hoskins’ power seems to have disappeared (.117 batting average, nine home runs), which is a tangible example of the lack of power that’s come from Cleveland’s platoon heavy approach. 

On Sunday, the Guardians started the game with a lineup that included a player with the third-worst slugging percentage in baseball (Steven Kwan), a rookie who is still looking for his first big league home run (Petey Halpin) and another rookie with a .326 slugging percentage (Khalil Watson). 

Now, those stats don’t tell the whole story considering Kwan’s been providing the Guardians with offense in other ways while Halpin and Watson are still finding their footing, but having them in the lineup looks even worse considering Valdez slugged two homers in a series where the Guardians hit just one home run as a team across the series (Travis Bazzana’s walk-off on Saturday night). 

Valdez’s production has peaked at the perfect time for the Pirates, as he’s hit .337 with 10 home runs and 27 RBI in 26 games since Oneil Cruz hit the injured list. That’s the kind of production that teams dream of getting from an injury replacement, and is also something the Guardians have been lacking since Ramírez and Martínez went down. 

Prior to the All-Star Break, Valdez made a bit of history when he racked up four go-ahead hits across the Pirates’ doubleheader against the Brewers, which had never been done before in MLB. 

He may not have reached those heights in his series against the Guardians, but the production he did provide makes the Guardians’ lack of offense against the Pirates look even worse.

Add us as a preferred source on Google

Follow