{"id":21043,"date":"2020-07-24T17:43:30","date_gmt":"2020-07-24T21:43:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mdcthereporter.com\/?p=21043"},"modified":"2021-07-14T13:04:11","modified_gmt":"2021-07-14T17:04:11","slug":"former-mdc-baseball-player-makes-toronto-blue-jays-big-league-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mdcthereporter.com\/staging\/8357\/former-mdc-baseball-player-makes-toronto-blue-jays-big-league-roster\/","title":{"rendered":"Former MDC Baseball Player Makes Toronto Blue Jays Roster; Gets First Big League Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, Santiago Espinal was a slick-fielding shortstop at Miami Dade College with major dreams.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Last week, the 25-year-old made his Major League Baseball debut on July 25 for the Toronto Blue Jays. Espinal, who made the <\/span>Blue Jays<\/span>\u2019<\/span><\/a> expanded 30-man roster, went 0-2 and struck out in his first at-bat against the Tampa Bay Rays\u2019 Ryan Yarbrough.<\/span><\/p>\n

Three days later, Espinal collected his first base hit\u2014a line drive to left field\u2014in the top of the 9th inning in the Blue Jays\u2019 5-1 victory over the defending champions, the Washington Nationals.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a 2-0 count and I knew the guy was gonna come with a fastball, so I took advantage of that opportunity,\u201d said Espinal, who dedicated his first hit to his mother\u2014Ingrid Rivera\u2014who passed away in December of cancer. \u201cAs soon as I saw the ball drop, I just took a deep breath and I was like<\/span>\u2014<\/span> finally.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"ESPINAL\"
ESPINAL<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Through five games, Espinal is batting .091 with one base hit, one stolen base and one run scored. Despite the slow start, he is providing steady defense, battling shortstop Bo Bichette and second baseman Joe Panik for playing time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The versatile infielder<\/span>\u2014who plays second base, shortstop and third b<\/span>ase<\/span>\u2014<\/span>joins Chicago Cubs\u2019 catcher <\/span>Victor Caratini <\/b>and Angels\u2019 outfielder <\/span>Brian Goodwin<\/b> as the other MDC alumni on <\/span>Major League Baseball<\/span> rosters this season.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to try to help the team win a championship,\u201d Espinal said. \u201cEvery time they put me in,\u00a0 I\u2019m gonna do my best. I\u2019m 100% gonna work hard.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Espinal, who was born in the Dominican Republic, came to the United States when he was 12. He played baseball at Lyman High School in Longwood, Florida for four years, but didn\u2019t graduate because he struggled to learn English, eventually attaining his diploma in 2014 from Penn Foster High School, a for-profit school in <\/span>Scranton, Pennsylvania.<\/span><\/p>\n

The following season, he attended Seminole State College in Orlando, but continued to struggle academically and never played a game for the Raiders. While playing in the Florida League that summer, he caught the attention of Danny Price\u2014then the head baseball coach at MDC\u2014after being named the league\u2019s Most Valuable Player.<\/span><\/p>\n

At MDC, <\/span>Espinal\u2019s career took off<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span> As a freshman, he led the team in singles (70), runs scored (38), stolen bases (15), triples (4) and batting average (.432). He was named Southern Conference Player of the Year, and was selected to the Florida College System Athletic\u00a0 Association All-State First Team and National Junior College Athletic Association Division I All-Region team.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe was one of the guys who wasn\u2019t supposed to make it,\u201d Price said. \u201cBut, he took school very seriously. He got the help he needed. He got a chance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Following his impressive freshman campaign, Espinal was drafted in the 10th round of the 2016 MLB Draft by the Boston Red Sox. During parts of three seasons in the Red Sox system, he played for the <\/span>Gulf Coast League Rays, <\/span>the Greenville Drive, a Class A affiliate, and the Salem Red Sox, an advanced Class A affiliate.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

His best season in the Red Sox system was in 2018 in Salem. He hit seven home runs, boasted a .313 batting average, scored 53 runs and had 80 hits in 65 games.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

That June, the Red Sox traded him to the Toronto Blue Jays for left fielder Steve Pearce and $1.5 million. Pearce won the World Series that year and was named series MVP after he hit three home runs and eight RBI to help the Red Sox defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Before making the Major Leagues, Espinal last played for the Buffalo Bisons, the Blue Jays AAA affiliate. He batted .317 with two home runs and 23 RBI in 28 games.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody who knows [Espinal] is proud,\u201d Price said. \u201cThis is a story about a guy who never gave up, who was a long shot. But he got there. I\u2019m proud of him.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Four years ago, Santiago Espinal was a slick-fielding shortstop at Miami Dade College with major dreams.\u00a0\u00a0 Last week, the 25-year-old made his Major League Baseball debut on July 25 for the Toronto Blue Jays. Espinal, who made the Blue Jays\u2019 expanded 30-man roster, went 0-2 and struck out in his first at-bat against the Tampa […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":534,"featured_media":21044,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,2749,2802],"tags":[54,63,1142,1963,1964],"class_list":{"0":"post-21043","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"category-kendall-campus","9":"category-baseball","10":"tag-baseball","11":"tag-alumni","12":"tag-sharks","13":"tag-santiago-espinal","14":"tag-toronto-blue-jays"},"yoast_head":"\nFormer MDC Baseball Player Makes Toronto Blue Jays Roster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Santiago Espinal, who played baseball at Miami Dade College, made the Toronto Blue Jays roster. \u201cEverybody who knows [Espinal] is proud,\u201d said Danny Price.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/mdcthereporter.com\/former-mdc-baseball-player-makes-toronto-blue-jays-big-league-roster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Former MDC Baseball Player Makes Toronto Blue Jays Roster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Santiago Espinal, who played baseball at Miami Dade College, made the Toronto Blue Jays roster. \u201cEverybody who knows [Espinal] is proud,\u201d said Danny Price.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/mdcthereporter.com\/former-mdc-baseball-player-makes-toronto-blue-jays-big-league-roster\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Reporter: The Student Newspaper at Miami Dade College\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-07-24T21:43:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-07-14T17:04:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/mdcthereporter.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/Santiago-Espinal-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jose Tovar\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jose Tovar\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mdcthereporter.com\\\/former-mdc-baseball-player-makes-toronto-blue-jays-big-league-roster\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mdcthereporter.com\\\/former-mdc-baseball-player-makes-toronto-blue-jays-big-league-roster\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jose Tovar\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/mdcthereporter.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/f9dec8b5da386baf199bf7b638238af3\"},\"headline\":\"Former MDC Baseball Player Makes Toronto Blue Jays Roster; 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