Today is the deadline for teams to tender contracts to players for the 2025 season who are under team control. While that deadline is at 8pm ET, the Cincinnati Reds got ahead on at least one of the moves by agreeing to a new contract with infielder Santiago Espinal. Jon Heyman of MLB Network and the New York Post reports that the deal is for $2,400,000 for the 2025 season.
Santiago Espinal was going to be arbitration eligible in the spring if the Reds tendered him a contract for 2025. MLB Trade Rumors projected his arbitration raise at $4,000,000. This deal comes in well below that, which may be an indication that both sides understood that he may have been a non-tender candidate if they couldn’t work out a different deal.
In his first season with Cincinnati, Espinal hit .246/.295/.356 in 118 games. He added 12 doubles and nine home runs, while going 11-for-12 in stolen base attempts. The former All-Star (2022 with the Toronto Blue Jays) had the lowest OPS+ of his career with a mark of 77 (meaning he was 23% below league average once park factors were applied to his OPS).
Cincinnati acquired the infielder during spring training after their infield went through several injuries and a suspension, leaving the club without a backup shortstop on the 40-man roster as the regular season approached. Espinal was able to fill that role, though it turned out he didn’t have to fill in much at shortstop as Elly De La Cruz played nearly every single day of the season. But the new Red did fill in a lot at second and third base where he made a combined 83 starts. He would also see limited action in the outfield where he played a total of 33.0 innings in 2024 for Cincinnati.
Versatility on the defensive side of things does help out the Reds bench and Espinal certainly brings that to the table. What he hasn’t been able to do over the last two seasons is hit. If guys stay healthy and don’t get suspended, Cincinnati won’t likely be asking him to do a ton of hitting.
