Enmanuel Valdez gets two hits in debut
This story was excerpted from Ian Browne’s Red Sox Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Last August, the trade of pending free agent Christian Vázquez to the Astros didn’t go over well in Red Sox Nation. The catcher was part of the fabric of the team and the community for years, and had a way for saving his hits for the most important times.
But business is business, and it was fitting in a way that one of the two prospects who chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom acquired in that deal eight months ago arrived at Fenway Park on Wednesday, while Vázquez was also in town with the Twins.
Enmanuel Valdez, the No. 17 Red Sox prospect according to MLB Pipeline, got his first call to the Major Leagues in what is likely to be a brief stint while Yu Chang is on the paternity list. [Editor's Note: Valdez was optioned before Thursday's finale against the Twins, with Chang reinstated from the paternity list.]
In the pregame hours of his first day in the big leagues, one of the first players Valdez ran into was … Vázquez.
“This is a business. We just need to get used to the business side. I got the opportunity to meet him outside right now while he was hitting and he congratulated me,” Valdez said. “It’s just a business and we just need to adapt to that. ”The business the 24-year-old Valdez enjoys most is hitting the baseball. And in his first MLB at-bat in a 10-4 loss, the left-handed hitter scorched a 106.2-mph single to left field against a pretty good pitcher in Joe Ryan.
Spoiler alert: That baseball went home with Valdez on Wednesday night.
“It felt good,” Valdez said. “Thanks, first of all, to God that I was able to connect on that splitter low and away. I was just trying to focus on enjoying the moment. This only happens once and I think I did that. I think I had a good time out there. “
Valdez was having such a good time he decided to crank out another hit in his second at-bat, again going the other way for a single off another splitter from Ryan in the fifth.
“This guy, he can hit,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. "Even in his last at-bat [a lineout in the bottom of the ninth] he stayed with the pitch and went the other way. He was under control.”
For Valdez, the hitting has always come easier than the defense. He’s moved around a bit in his career, but the Red Sox have him focusing on second base, where he started on Wednesday.
There were two adventures in the fifth inning. The first was when Edouard Julien hit a grounder that first baseman Triston Casas dove for, and Valdez, perhaps screened off a little bit, bobbled it for what was initially ruled an error, and then changed to a hit.
Later in the inning, Joey Gallo hit a towering popup into short right field that Valdez backpedaled and backpedaled and backpedaled before dropping it. For that, he got an error. However, right fielder Alex Verdugo probably should have called him off.
“I felt like I had it,” Valdez said. “The one factor I didn't account for was the wind. I felt like the wind took it, but errors are a part of the game and I’m here to fix any mistakes that I make, and keep working hard so they don't happen again.”
Valdez has more to do before he becomes a finished product, but he soaked in the first step of his Major League career. Perhaps the best part was the phone conversation with his father, during which Valdez shared the news.
“It was a great moment, a great call,” Valdez said. “He told me, ‘Finally we made it, but now is where the real work starts to maintain yourself and keep working, and to never stop working and learning.’ I would love for my family to be here. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to be here, but this is something that I do for them. I wake up every day to be able to play and provide for them. It’s a great moment for me and for my family.”