Weekly Report: Pirates Quiet; Jays-Dodgers Begin Series; Bucs, Exes & MLB Notes

Fall Classic finally...

Pirates Stuff:

• Honor roll call: Paul Skenes was named to TSN All-Star team.
• Well, guess who made the AFL's weekly All-Performer's Team again? Yep, OF Esmerlyn Valdez, who slashed .615 w/5 HR, 9 RS, 11 RBIs & 7 BB. Valdez homered in four of his five games to lead the AFL w/seven HRs after two weeks. He was, not surprisingly, also selected as the AFL Hitter of the Week. 

Esmerlyn Valdez - 2025 MLB Pipeline/AFL image

•  Pirates director of amateur scouting Justin Horowitz skipped to the Nationals to become an assistant GM. Horowitz was the headman for last two drafts of Konnor Griffin and Seth Hernandez, and for a team so dependent on developing its own talent, Horowitz's loss leaves a big hole to fill.

MLB Stuff:

• The two teams left standing are the Dodgers and the Blue Jays, who began the battle for the crown Friday in Toronto as LA looks to repeat. They did it opposite ways; LA swept Milwaukee while it took the Jays seven games and a clutch three-run shot by George Springer to escape the Mariners with a series-clinching 4-3 dub. They opened this weekend and split the first two games at Rogers Centre.
• Ke'Bryan Hayes won this year's Fielding Bible honors at the hot corner.
• The Pirates released RHP Cody Ponce, 31, after the 2021 campaign to further pursue his pro career in Japan. He was injured there in '23, signed with Hanwha of the KBO for the '25 season, where Cody posted a 17-1/1.89 line and set a Nippon League season record with 252 K (in 180-2/3 IP). He's now back on the MLB radar, with several teams interested in bringing him stateside for 2026.

Cody Ponce - 2020 Pirates image

• Stayin' in-house: The Los Angeles Angels hired former C Kurt Suzuki, 42, as manager. The 16-year MLB vet has spent the last three seasons as an assistant to Angels GM Perry Minasian and should hit the ground running.
• PhD: The Giants hired U of Tennessee baseball coach Tony Vitello, 47, as San Francisco’s new manager. Vitello is the first skipper in MLB history to jump into the fire straight from college with no pro experience as a player or staffer.