The 2025 Cincinnati Reds<\/a>, unfortunately, did not find much success from their utility man, Santiago Espinal<\/a>. For most of the season, he was a black hole on offense. With him not being anything special defensively anywhere on the field, it became harder and harder to justify any playing time as the season went on.<\/p>\n Let’s dig into some of his numbers from 2025 and why the Reds have to move on from him.<\/p>\n First things first, demoting Espinal to Triple-A is not an option for the Reds, as he has zero options remaining. He is entering his final year of arbitration and will be a free agent following the 2026 season.<\/p>\n At 30 years old, and the production he\u2019s provided, it would be difficult to see him receive a contract larger than the $2.5 million mark he signed for last season during arbitration.<\/p>\n Espinal\u2019s role on the team is purely a bench utility man. In 2025, here\u2019s how many games he played at each position:<\/p>\n 1B: 3 (2 starts) \/ -1 DRS<\/p>\n 2B: 19 (14 starts) \/ -1 DRS<\/p>\n 3B: 75 (50 starts) \/ 0 DRS<\/p>\n SS: 2 (0 starts) \/ 0 DRS<\/p>\n LF: 10 (4 starts) \/ 0 DRS<\/p>\n RF: 6 (5 starts) \/ 0 DRS<\/p>\n Not only was he able to handle these positions, he was also about league average at every single one of them in Defensive Runs Saved.<\/p>\n Espinal suffered the worst season of his career in 2025 with a .575 OPS, \u00a057 OPS+, and a -1.4 bWAR. All three of these are career lows.<\/p>\n He laced the cleats for 114 games and had 328 plate appearances, which are both basically on par with his career average. While he was never much of a power-hitting threat, he frustratingly had no home runs all season after popping nine over the fence in 2024.<\/p>\n It was the first full season in Espinal’s career where he had no home runs (0 HRs in 26 G – 2020). Subsequently, he posted his lowest slugging percentage of his career at .282.<\/p>\n It\u2019s easy to harp on a bench piece for struggling at the plate, but Espinal’s performance was simply hurting the team. Speed, another important aspect on every MLB bench, was a non-factor in Espinal\u2019s game as well. He stole just two bases while getting caught once, essentially a non-threat on the base-paths.<\/p>\n This was following a 2024 season that saw him steal 11 bases, getting caught just twice. The problem wasn\u2019t his sprint speed, as it was 27.3 feet per second in 2024 and 27.1 feet per second in 2025. Technically, he was slower in 2025, but it is by such a small amount that it is a negligible difference.<\/p>\n Did the Reds keep Sal Stewart in the minors just so they didn’t have to lose Santiago Espinal? pic.twitter.com\/tgXCpcbJQB<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Chatterbox Sports (@CBoxSports) September 1, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2025\/10\/USATSI_26843974_168400885_lowres-300x200.jpg\")
Reds Should Move On from Utility Man Santiago Espinal<\/h2>\n
Espinal\u2019s Contract<\/h3>\n
Espinal\u2019s Defensive Roles<\/h3>\n
Offensive Production (or Lack Thereof)<\/h3>\n
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