San Diego Padres New Acquisition Anderson Espinoza Scouting Report
The San Diego Padres recently acquired right-hander Anderson Espinoza from Boston in exchange for Drew Pomeranz. What kind of pitcher is he?
As we enter into the trade season, this will be the start of a series I will do as “big” prospects are dealt. By big, I’m defining that as a consensus top 50-100 prospect in the game, so while there may be some very good prospects traded, we’ll be highlighting just the top guys in these more in-depth pieces. Today, we’ll take a look at Anderson Espinoza.
Who Is He?
Espinoza was signed in July of 2014 by the Boston Red Sox from Venezuela. They signed Espinoza to a bonus worth $1.8 million, as he was the #4 ranked prospect in that season’s international free agent class, but the top-ranked pitcher in his class. He was part of a big class for Boston as they went above and beyond the international spending limits in that season.
Boston started Espinoza with their Dominican Summer League team, most likely because DSL teams start their seasons before other short-season leagues. In four starts, the 17 year-old threw 15 innings, putting up a 1.20 ERA, 1.07 WHIP and a 3/21 BB/K ratio. He quickly earned a promotion to the Red Sox GCL team, where he made 10 starts, throwing 40 innings with a 0.68 ERA and 0.83 WHIP, posting a 9/40 BB/K. He also made one start with Boston’s A-ball club, throwing 3 1/3 innings without quite the same results, as he allowed 3 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks, striking out 4. All together, he posted a 1.23 ERA over 15 starts, throwing 58 1/3 innings, with a 0.94 WHIP and a 14/65 BB/K ratio.
After that tremendous season, Espinoza was highly rated on many ranking services. Coming into the season, Baseball Prospectus had him as the #73 prospect, and they were by far the lowest on the young righty. MLB.com had him rated at #39, and Baseball America had him ranked #19 in all of baseball. Heck, if you dig even deeper, John Sickels of minorleagueball.com had Espinoza #34, Sporting News had him ranked #31, Keith Law of ESPN had him at #38, and Scout had Espinoza had him at #89. He was very highly rated throughout the prospect community.
The Red Sox pushed Espinoza to their full season team in the South Atlantic League in Greenville to start 2016. Espinoza, before the trade, had made 17 starts, throwing 76 innings, posting a 4.38 ERA and 1.37 WHIP, posting a 27/72 BB/K. At their midseason ranks, Baseball America moved Espinoza up to #15 and Baseball Prospectus had moved Espinoza all the way to #24. I had Espinoza ranked #32 overall in my midseason top 50, but I also included a number of players that BA and BP had eliminated in their lists, so removing those players would have put Espinoza also into my top 25 prospects as well.
Next: Espinoza's scouting report