Not everything is to set off the alarms regarding the Dominican offense in a Blue Jays that resist and, by overcoming the first quarter of the season, barely retain the last place in the playoffs in the American League.
The worst version with the wood of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., already exceeds a month, his longest since he landed at the Big Show in 2019, in the middle of a universe of neon lights. Teoscar Hernández missed almost a month due to a sprain in his left oblique and it has been difficult for him to start the engines after his return and Raimel Tapia has not started as projected at the Rogers Center either.
Guerrero is hitting just .235/.333/.313 since April 16, going 27-for-115 in 32 games with three doubles, two home runs and 12 RBIs. To date he is a player below the replacement level; in Baseball-Reference he only reaches 0.9 WAR and in FanGraphs the situation is much worse at only 0.6.
Nevertheless, Santiago Spinala utility called to come off the bench, has taken such advantage of the opportunities that coach Charlie Montoyo has granted him that he has been the player with the greatest contribution for a while as measured by the essential sabermetric victory over replacement player (WAR) statistic.
Espinal, as Santiago-born as his name, has been used by the Puerto Rican leader mostly at second base (36 times), in the face of what already seems to be a total loss of confidence on the part of the Blue Jays at Cavan Biggio (he’s hitting .043 this year and .230 lifetime).
The Quisqueyan, who came to the Blue Jays in exchange for little noise in mid-2018, accumulates an offensive line of .293/.347/.436 product of 39 hits in 135 at-bats, including 12 doubles, two homers, 15 RBI , 14 runs scored and an adjusted OPS of 129. He leads the club in batting average and on-base percentage.
27 years old and taken in the tenth round of the 2016 draft by the Red Sox (position 298 from Miami-Dade College with a US$50,000 bonus), Espinal already has 1.5 WAR in the Baseball-Reference version and has four runs saved. with defense above the average defender. In the AL, only 10 players total more WAR than the 1.4 he garners in the FanGraphs version and he leads his circuit among second basemen.
“The Blue Jays would be lost without Santiago Spinalcolumnist Mike Wilner headlined Sunday in the Toronto Star, Canada’s most widely read newspaper.
“I just think he’s earned it,” outfielder George Springer said of Espinal over the weekend. “His game speaks for itself. He’s always a tough at-bat and he plays amazing defense. I know everyone on our team loves him. He is our man.”
Bob Bichette, the club’s shortstop and his partner in 18 double plays, has it clear with Espinal. He has responded at the right time.
“It’s just about taking your chance,” Bichette said. “Guys who are ready for it take the opportunity and run with it; guys who aren’t. Obviously he’s done a great job with that on both sides of the field. It’s definitely a blessing to have him and Matt (Chapman) by my side.”
Espinal believes that he is reaping what he sowed. The team made him debut in 2020 when he started the pandemic campaign and since then he has only spent four games in the minors, completing a recovery process. This year he will only earn $723,550, 23rd out of 26 players on the roster.
“Honestly, I worked for that,” said Espinal, who made his debut with the Stars in Lidom in the 2017-2018 harvest. “I worked… I didn’t expect anything, I just knew that every day that they gave me the opportunity I was going to do a good job, no matter what.”
