ANALYSIS/OPINION:
Danny Espinosa will be missed.
I know if you are a Washington Nationals fan, you won’t miss that .226 batting average and those strikeouts at the bottom of the order. He had his moments at the plate, and 92 home runs after six full seasons — 24 last season — is an impressive figure for an infielder who hit much of the time at the bottom of the order. But the strikeouts often overwhelmed the power.
That said, you’ll miss him, believe me.
Espinosa was traded in December to the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, dealt for two minor league pitchers, Austin Adams and Kyle McGowin. He is going back home to where he grew up in Southern California. He will be the starting second baseman for the Angels, .226 batting average or not, because he is that good a second baseman. And he is an even better shortstop.
All the while Ian Desmond was the starting shortstop for Washington, it was Espinosa who was probably the best fielding shortstop in the organization. Last year, he got a chance to play that position, and he played it well. His presence allowed the Nationals to live with second baseman Daniel Murphy’s defensive limitations.
AUDIO: Former Nationals infielder Danny Espinosa with Thom Loverro
But now he’s gone, and Murphy will find himself next to second-year phenom Trea Turner, who, after his remarkable rookie season in center field, will be moving back to his regular shortstop position. Turner’s full-time presence in the lineup, probably batting second behind newly acquired outfielder Adam Eaton, will help make this lineup the best we’ve seen in Nationals history.
They will pay the price, though, defensively. First year shortstops make errors — a lot of them — and, combined with Murphy’s defensive weaknesses, you’ll see some hits that would have been outs with Espinosa anchoring the middle of the defense.
That said, it was probably time for Espinosa to move on. He was one of general manager Mike Rizzo’s favorite players and former manager Davey Johnson’s favorite players — nobody on the field was tougher or gave more of himself, sometimes to his own detriment. He was passionate about the game. He cared, and he loved playing here in Washington. But he has a chance to take the next step back where he grew up.
As we are just a week away from pitchers and catchers reporting for spring training, I caught up with Espinosa in a conversation for my podcast, Cigars & Curveballs, hosted here on The Washington Times web site and also available on iTunes and Google Play. He had some interesting things to say about his former teammates.
On Ryan Zimmerman: “He took care of me and helped me out as a kid. When I first made it to the big leagues, he took me out and bought me a couple of suits. He took care of the young guys. Awesome guy. I’ll miss Ryan. I became really close to him. I hope he gets healthy. I think if he gets healthy his career will get back on track. He is a great ballplayer, and I think he will have a good rest of his career there. He is a great first baseman and has a great bat. In any lineup I was in, I would love to have Ryan hitting in the middle of the lineup.”
Jayson Werth: “I became very good friends with Jayson. What people don’t understand…they see how this organization changed from 2010 to 2016…the responsibility that Jayson took in signing with the Nationals and creating a completely different type of atmosphere for how everything is run and how everything is taken care of. All the credit goes to Jayson when he came in and changed that. Ryan is a great leader, he does a lot of things for the organization and does a lot of for this team. Jayson is the same way. He came in from playing in Los Angeles and Philadelphia, where he won a World Series. He knew how things were supposed to be run and the way that they were being handled weren’t correct. Jayson took a lot of responsibility. He came in and completely changed the whole way this team was run. I think people should give him a lot of credit as to why the Nationals have had success.”
Finally, on the departed, controversial closer Jonathan Papelbon: “Jonathan Papelbon was one of the best teammates I’ve ever had. Great guy. I really liked Pap. He would take care of anybody for that team. If we were going to get into a fight he would be the first one out there. He was what you want in a teammate. He was an old-school teammate. He came up in a different era than I did. I think Pap’s one of the last guys, the old-school ballplayers who came up in that era. For me, it was a treat to play with Pap. I’ll never say a bad thing about him. I’d go to battle with him any day of the week. People had a lot of respect for him. For the people who think he was a bad teammate or a problem for us, they couldn’t be more wrong.”
This last one is of particular importance to me. After the bizarre incident where Papelbon choked team star and fan favorite Bryce Harper in a dugout fight near the end of the 2015 season, I wrote a column, after talking to a number of Nationals players who asked not to be identified, that Papelbon was a well-liked and respected figure in the clubhouse — even after the Harper choking. He was crucified by fans, and that was certainly understandable, given their love for Harper. But he was called a clubhouse “cancer” by some in the media, and that was flat-out wrong. He was liked in Washington, like he was liked in Philadelphia and Boston.
Danny Espinosa was liked as well. Unlike Jonathan Papelbon, though, he will be missed.
Thom Loverro hosts his weekly podcast “Cigars & Curveballs” Wednesdays available on iTunes and Google Play.
• Thom Loverro can be reached at tloverro@washingtontimes.com.
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