{"id":479314,"date":"2026-02-16T22:36:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:36:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479314\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:36:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:36:09","slug":"dodgers-to-sign-santiago-espinal-to-minor-league-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479314\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers To Sign Santiago Espinal To Minor League Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dodgers are adding Santiago Espinal<\/a> on a minor league deal, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic<\/a>. Espinal is in big-league camp with the team. The veteran infielder is a client of Rimas Sports Agency.<\/p>\n

The Espinal news comes on the heels of the announcement that Tommy Edman<\/a> will begin the year on the IL, which manager Dave Roberts<\/a> shared with reporters (including Ardaya<\/a>) this morning. Edman is coming off ankle surgery and was known to be taking a gradual approach<\/a> to building up for the regular season.<\/p>\n

Roberts mentioned Miguel Rojas<\/a>, Alex Freeland<\/a>, and Hyeseong Kim<\/a> as candidates to pick up work at second base (relayed by Sonja Chen of MLB.com<\/a>). Espinal could join that mix if he makes the team.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old Espinal struggled mightily with the Reds last season. He posted a 58 wRC+ while spending time at all four infield positions, plus both corner outfield spots. Espinal, never known for his power, amassed 328 plate appearances without a home run. Cincinnati sent Espinal outright to Triple-A Louisville at the end of October. He rejected the assignment and entered free agency.<\/p>\n

After a brief debut with Toronto in the shortened 2020 season, Espinal became an important part of the Blue Jays\u2019 lineup in 2021. He slashed .311\/.376\/.405 in 92 games as Toronto\u2019s semi-regular third baseman. Espinal slid over to second base the following year, delivering a perfectly league-average 100 wRC+ in a career-high 135 games.<\/p>\n

Espinal\u2019s production tailed off in 2023. His OPS fell to .644 in a utility role. Toronto traded him to Cincinnati for right-hander Chris McElvain<\/a> shortly before the 2024 campaign. He added both corner outfield spots and first base to his lengthy list of defensive positions while with the Reds, but his tenure with the team was otherwise forgettable.<\/p>\n

The main draw for Espinal is the ability to provide credible defense in several areas. He hasn\u2019t been a plus-defender in terms of Defensive Runs Saved in recent seasons, but he\u2019s kept his head above water in both the infield and outfield. Outs Above Average had Espinal as a +2 in 2025.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Katie Stratman, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dodgers are adding Santiago Espinal on a minor league deal, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Espinal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,194089,82,10163],"class_list":{"0":"post-479314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-santiago-espinal","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-tommy-edman"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}