Ignore the statline, what mattered in this game was that former Guardians No. 1 prospect Daniel Espino returned to the mound in a real game for the first time in 3 1/2 years. He last pitched April 29th, 2022 in Double-A. At the time, he was being compared to Gerrit Cole, Jacob DeGrom and Stephen Strasburg
(One start earlier, Espino had struck out 14 batters in 5.0 innings).It started with right patellar tendinitis in his knee that was supposed to temporarily sideline him,
but then while rehabbing the knee, Espino hurt his throwing shoulder, causing him to miss the rest of the 2022 season. After rehabbing the injuries, he experienced shoulder soreness during Spring Training in 2023 and eventually required right shoulder anterior capsule repair in May 2023, causing him to miss the entire 2023 season as well. A second shoulder surgery was required in Spring Training 2024 to repair his capsule and rotator cuff, which brings us to Saturday.
After rehabbing for the past two seasons, Espino had been listed as a participant of the Arizona Fall League earlier this past week. I assumed that would be the first time anyone saw him on the mound, but surprisingly, he was listed as the starting pitcher Saturday for Columbus.
So how’d he do?
Espino’s first pitch was 96 mph, then 98, then 97. He got as high as 98.9 mph, mixing in his wicked slider and a curveball. The first batter (former big leaguer MJ Melendez) hit a weak groundball single. Another big leaguer Nick Loftin followed with a single before Espino struck out Harold Castro and induced an infield popup from Bobby Dalbec.
Espino looked to have gotten out of the inning when he gave up a line drive to third baseman Christian Cairo, but it deflected off Cairo’s glove and allowed a run to score. Espino was then removed from the game, having thrown 21 pitches. Unfortunately, reliever Tanner Burns immediately coughed up a three-run homer to the next batter, which made Espino’s stat line look much worse than it was.
At the end of the day, all that really matters was that he was healthy, his velocity looked good and he left the game healthy. I liked what I saw and can’t wait to see him help Cleveland next year, regardless of the role. (Knock on wood). If you have a chance, find the video of Espino getting pulled from the game. You don’t often see baseball players get emotional on the field, but Espino was overwhelmed after not pitching in a game for 3 1/2 years. If you don’t get a little misty-eyed watching that, I’m not sure you’re human.
Back to the game, Columbus rallied on two occasions, but never quite was able to tie the game. Kahlil Watson went 2-for-3 with two walks and a stolen base, Dom Nunez went a perfect 2-for-2 with a home run, a double and two walks and Kody Huff went 2-for-5 with a home run and a double.
Joe Lampe and Yordys Valdez also tripled.
Austin Peterson came in for piggy-back relief and he allowed four runs on nine hits in 7.0 innings with four strikeouts and three walks. Tommy Mace pitched a scoreless top of the ninth inning as well.
