{"id":100200,"date":"2025-05-09T17:53:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-09T21:53:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=100200"},"modified":"2025-05-09T17:53:37","modified_gmt":"2025-05-09T21:53:37","slug":"pirates-recall-ji-hwan-bae-first-move-kelly-era","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/09\/pirates-recall-ji-hwan-bae-first-move-kelly-era\/","title":{"rendered":"Speedy Outfielder Recalled in Pirates&#8217; First Roster Move of Kelly Era"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates have recalled outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/baeji01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ji Hwan Bae<\/a> from Triple-A in their first move under <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/09\/pirates-new-manager-kelly\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">new manager<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/k\/kellydo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Don Kelly<\/a>. Danny Demilio of <em>Pittsburgh Baseball Now<\/em> was the first to report on Bae\u2019s presence at PNC Park for Friday\u2019s game against the Atlanta Braves. In a corresponding move, infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/v\/valdeen01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Enmanuel Vald\u00e9z<\/a> has been placed on the 10-day injured list with left shoulder inflammation.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Ji Hwan Bae has a locker at PNC Park<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Danny Demilio (@Demilio22) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Demilio22\/status\/1920909677879009569?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 9, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Bae broke camp with the Pirates but was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/31\/pirates-acquire-canario-mets\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">sent to Indianapolis<\/a> on March 31 when they acquired <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/c\/canaral01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Alexander Canario<\/a>. During his brief stay with Pittsburgh, Bae was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts and a baserunning blunder to his credit.<\/p>\n<h2>Pirates Begin Kelly Era by Recalling Bae<\/h2>\n<p>Pirates fans hoping that the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/05\/08\/pirates-fire-manager-derek-shelton-don-kelly-replacement\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">dismissal<\/a> of former manager <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/managers\/sheltde99.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Derek Shelton<\/a> would lead to more sweeping changes will be disappointed by this move. Among the targets of their ire are outfielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/p\/phamth01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Tommy Pham<\/a> and infielder <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/t\/triolja01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Jared Triolo<\/a>. However, both are in Kelly\u2019s first starting lineup for Friday\u2019s game. The left-handed hitting Bae is not. In addition to the outfield, Bae also plays in the middle infield, where the Pirates already have plenty of options.<\/p>\n<p>At Indianapolis, Bae was hitting .258\/.343\/.376, 1 HR, and 6 RBI while stealing six bases in eight attempts. Besides his often highlight-reel defense in center field, what has intrigued the Pirates most about Bae has been his on-base skills and base-stealing speed. However, Bae has enticed the Pirates brass with similar minor league performances before, only to have those skills vanish at the major league level. It will be interesting to see whether he responds to Kelly and flashes those skills with the big club.<\/p>\n<p>General manager Ben Cherington is looking for anybody to help jump-start a flailing offense that enters the Kelly Era with a team slash line of .219\/.300\/.325. Whether Bae will be given a regular role to provide that spark remains to be seen.<\/p>\n<h3>Vald\u00e9z to the IL<\/h3>\n<p>Vald\u00e9z has been bothered by a jammed shoulder. During an at-bat on Wednesday in St. Louis, he reacted as though the shoulder was aggravated after swinging the bat. He remained in the game despite being bothered by the ailment. Vald\u00e9z had often hit in the cleanup spot under Shelton despite hitting just .209\/.294\/.363, 2 HR, and 12 RBI. He\u2019s been in a slump lately, with only nine hits in his last 48 at-bats. Time on the IL may give him a chance to gain his swing back. Alex Stumpf of MLB.com was the first to report this tidbit.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"bluesky-embed\" data-bluesky-uri=\"at:\/\/did:plc:xtjr2ecuxb6wqjr3jfbwdu3m\/app.bsky.feed.post\/3lord4a6adc23\" data-bluesky-cid=\"bafyreiapj4sc4rznw33s2ysypadpg235vky2euuq3qcsjxple55zpgsx2y\" data-bluesky-embed-color-mode=\"system\">\n<p lang=\"en\">We have recalled INF\/OF Ji Hwan Bae from Triple-A Indianapolis and placed INF Enmanuel Valdez on the 10-day injured list.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Pittsburgh Pirates (<a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:xtjr2ecuxb6wqjr3jfbwdu3m?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@pirates.com<\/a>) <a  href=\"https:\/\/bsky.app\/profile\/did:plc:xtjr2ecuxb6wqjr3jfbwdu3m\/post\/3lord4a6adc23?ref_src=embed\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 9, 2025 at 5:01 PM<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/embed.bsky.app\/static\/embed.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>It opens an opportunity for rookie <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/gorskma01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Matt Gorski<\/a>, who\u2019s in Friday\u2019s lineup at first base in a rare start against a right-handed pitcher. Gorski was hitting well at Indianapolis (.300\/.325\/.529, 3 HR, 14 RBI) when he was <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/04\/24\/pirates-call-up-prospects-send-down-suwinski-roster-moves\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">selected<\/a> on April 24. In his debut, he homered in his first major league plate appearance, becoming the first Pirate since <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/m\/martest01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2025-05-09_br\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Starling Marte<\/a> to do so. With the Pirates, he\u2019s 4-for-19 with that homer and a triple.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Pittsburgh Pirates have recalled outfielder Ji Hwan Bae from Triple-A in their first move under new manager Don Kelly. Danny Demilio of Pittsburgh Baseball Now was the first to report on Bae\u2019s presence at PNC Park for Friday\u2019s game against the Atlanta Braves. In a corresponding move, infielder Enmanuel Vald\u00e9z has been placed on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5010,"featured_media":100211,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[26,1071,35],"tags":[3160,28961,6314,6463,6221,28332,612,1087],"class_list":["post-100200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pirates","category-mlb","category-news","tag-derek-shelton","tag-don-kelly","tag-enmanuel-valdez","tag-jared-triolo","tag-ji-hwan-bae","tag-matt-gorski","tag-starling-marte","tag-tommy-pham"],"modified_by":"Lewis Masella, Site Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5010"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100200"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100200\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100213,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100200\/revisions\/100213"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}