Opinion | The Blue Jays would be lost without Santiago Espinal. Go figure

There is a light shining through the black clouds that have been hovering over the Blue Jays’ bats this season.

Santiago Espinal, with one quarter of the season in the rear-view mirror, is the club leader in batting average, on-base percentage and position player wins above replacement. On a team filled with most valuable player candidates, all-stars, Silver Sluggers and even a World Series MVP, the 27-year-old has been the glue holding a staggering offence together.

Expected to share second base with Cavan Biggio to start the season, and bounce around the infield spelling Bo Bichette and Matt Chapman on occasion, Espinal has instead grabbed the everyday job at the keystone and does not look as though he’s about to let it go any time soon.

“I just think he’s earned it,” centre-fielder George Springer said of the man who plays about 100 feet in front of him. “His play speaks for itself. He’s always a tough at-bat and he plays unbelievable defence. I know everybody on our team loves him. He’s our guy.”

Espinal isn’t just some scrappy, unsung-hero, glue-guy type. That’s the role he should be playing on a stacked offensive team still waiting to break out, but until it does, he’s been the one getting the job done more often than most.

In his first at-bat Sunday against the Cincinnati Reds, Espinal led off the second inning by yanking a 2-and-2 slider into the left-field corner for his 13th double of the season — another category in which he’s the club leader. The two-bagger extended his hitting streak to 15 games, the longest active streak in the major leagues. He came around to score the Jays’ first run three pitches later, on a Chapman single.

“I know it’s been a 15-gamer and I’m glad,” Espinal said in the quiet of the Jays clubhouse after the 3-2 loss. “I’m hitting the ball, I’m seeing the ball well, but nothing matters if we don’t get the W.”

He’s one of very few Jays hitting well right now.

Espinal is batting .293 with a .347 on-base percentage, both tops on the team among hitters with more than 25 at-bats. The only Jay whose average is within 30 points is Springer, at .271. Springer leads in on-base plus slugging with an .826 mark, but Espinal is second at .783, just ahead of Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s .781.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, but this is a very clear case of preparation meeting opportunity and turning into something that’s been pretty great.

“It’s just about getting your opportunity,” said Bichette, who has played on Espinal’s right side every step of the way. “Guys who are ready for it take the opportunity and run with it; guys who aren’t don’t. Obviously he’s done a great job with that on both sides of the ball. It’s definitely a blessing to have him and Matt (Chapman) beside me.”

The man himself agrees.

“I honestly worked for it,” Espinal said. “I worked … I didn’t expect anything, I just knew that every day they gave me the opportunity I was going to do a good job, no matter what.”

Good job is an understatement. Veteran reliever David Phelps sees big things coming for the second baseman.

“I was saying out in the bullpen,” said Phelps, “(that) I think one of the cooler stories of our team would be Santi going to the all-star game … He’s arguably been our best player the whole season.”

In fact, the only Jay who ranks higher than Espinal in WAR is pitcher Kevin Gausman — or Alek Manoah, depending on which version of the metric you trust. But according to FanGraphs and Baseball Reference, Espinal is second on the team and first among position players.

Espinal ranks so high not just because of what he’s done at the plate, but because of his glove.

“He’s special on both sides,” Bichette raves of his double-play partner. “Plays great defence, has good at-bats every day. I think he can hit anywhere in the lineup. We’re just happy to have him in there every day doing what he’s doing.”

And every day is no exaggeration. Espinal is one of only three Jays to have appeared in every one of their 41 games, along with Bichette and Chapman.

“It started the first series of the year,” recalled Phelps, “when he got two booming doubles in the gap against Texas in big spots. He just carried that over to being an integral part of not only our offence, but our defence and just our whole team.”

The combination of Espinal’s bat and glove has helped the Jays win more than they’ve lost, and he hit .348 on the just-completed 4-2 homestand against Seattle and Cincinnati. He’s not supposed to be carrying the offence, though, and doesn’t believe he will be much longer.

“It will come,” he said confidently. “We’re just going (through it) right now, losing these tough games. I know we’re going to turn everything around.”

However it plays out, it’ll happen with Espinal at second base every day, something that was definitely not in the plans a month and a half ago. Now it’s very difficult to imagine the Jays being successful without it.

Mike Wilner is a Toronto-based baseball columnist for the Star and host of the baseball podcast “Deep Left Field.” Follow him on Twitter: @wilnerness

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