Santiago

Espinal

Espinal heads to the open market after refusing an outright assignment to Triple-A Louisville following his removal from Cincinnati’s 40-man roster. The 30-year-old makes a ton of sense as a versatile bench infielder on a contending roster, but he’s probably overmatched as a first-division regular. He’s compiled a respectable .261/.316/.349 slash line with 20 homers and 28 steals in 578 games at the big-league level over the past six seasons.

Espinal could elect free agency, or he can compete for a spot with the Reds in spring training. The 30-year-old hit 243/.292/.282 over 114 at-bats with Cincinnati in 2025.

It’s the third consecutive game against a left-handed starter that McLain has found himself on the bench for, just adding to what has been an extremely disappointing season for the 26-year-old infielder. Santiago Espinal will start in his place at second base and bat ninth for the Reds on Saturday.

Both times Hayes has sat, it’s been against a lefty, with Santiago Espinal stepping in. Both are right-handed hitters, but Hayes has a .469 OPS against lefties this year, compared to .589 against righties. Of course, that’s very likely a fluke. Hayes still has an OPS 135 points better against lefties than versus righties for his career. Last year, he had an .852 OPS against lefties and a .491 OPS versus righties.

Steer has taken a step back in July after a strong month of June. In 16 games this month, Steer is hitting .222/.311/.370 with two home runs and eight RBI. He does have only eight strikeouts in those 16 games, so he’s continuing to make lots of contact and should fall into a hot streak again soon. Santiago Espinal will play first base and bat ninth.

Marte, who hit .333 with two homers and just one strikeout during a nine-game rehab assignment, is back two months after suffering a strained oblique. The Reds have him starting at third base and batting seventh today. His return should result in far less playing time for Santiago Espinal, but Espinal is starting at second with Matt McLain DHing today. Christian Encarnacion-Strand could also lose some at-bats. Marte should be worth playing in mixed leagues; he was batting .294/.342/.515 with three homers and four steals in 19 games before getting hurt.

Encarnacion-Strand, who is hitting .262 (11-for-42) with three homers and seven RBI in 11 games since returning from the injured list earlier this month, has begun to cede playing time to Spencer Steer at the cold corner with Santiago Espinal getting additional run at third base. He’s gone ice-cold since homering in three straight games after returning from the injured list back on June 6.

Encarnacion-Strand takes a seat with righty Bailey Ober on the hill for Minnesota as he’s gone into a slide at the dish over the past week, going 3-for-25 with nine strikeouts, following a stretch where he homered in three consecutive contests after coming back from the injured list. It’ll be veteran infielder Santiago Espinal at the hot corner on Wednesday night in his place.

Two days is the longest Terry Francona can go without playing Santiago Espinal, so Espinal is at third and Christian Encarnacion-Strand is at first tonight. Steer still hasn’t gotten hot any point, but he did reach five times and knock in two runs during the three-game series against the Diamondbacks over the weekend. Espinal is 1-for-29 in his last nine games.

Espinal had been hitting second regularly since replace Matt McLain in that spot last month, but it seems to be over now. He’d hit just .183/.238/.225 in 76 plate appearances since the switch. The Reds have Gavin Lux batting second and Tyler Stephenson hitting cleanup tonight.