Santiago Espinal set to make the Dodgers’ Opening Day roster; how’d he do it? – Dodgers Digest

When I looked at who could begin the season at second base for the Dodgers, there was a glaring omission.

I knew I was forgetting someone. I mean, yeah? Not sure he’s better than the other options. Slight advantage being right-handed, assuming Freeland or Kim take the other side of the platoon.

— Dustin Nosler (@DustinNosler) February 18, 2026

I had forgotten the Dodgers signed Santiago Espinal to a minor-league deal just two days before I published the 2B article, hence why he wasn’t include. And, let’s be serious: I don’t think a lot of folks expected Espinal to do enough to break camp with the team.

Alas, he has done just that — just not officially yet.

Espinal is hitting .500/.519/.900, evoking shades of Brian Barden. Yes, there have been Spring Training darlings before, there will be Spring Training darlings after. Espinal, however, has at least a little bit of a reputation. After all, he was an All-Star in 2022 because he hit .298 in the first half and was an injury replacement because four AL All-Stars — Jose Altuve, Yordan Alvarez, George Springer, Mike Trout –missed the game due to injury. And with Tommy Edman‘s recovery being what it is and Hyeseong Kim injuring his hand in the World Baseball Classic, Espinal’s Opening Day roster spot is all but secured.

Now a dive into his Statcast numbers from 2026 Spring Training reveal some wholly unsustainable numbers for him, but there is the question of whether he could improve his profile with the Dodgers than he had been with the Blue Jays and Reds previously.

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All of the following needs to be prefaced with the Small Sample Size tag, as we’re looking at 27 plate appearances in the Cactus League.

Still, Espinal has a max exit velocity of 105.8 MPH in the Cactus League so far. His career-best in max EV is 107.5. So, he’s hitting the ball harder more frequently this Spring. In fact, of the 23 balls he has put in play, seven of them have been at 100 MPH or higher, and another five have been better than the MLB average of 89.7 in 2025. Again, this is an extremely small sample size, but more than half of the balls he has put into play have been hit with authority.

What’s changed? While there’s a mention about the bat on his shoulder (see below), there has been one clear difference from looking at his setup and swing from 2022 to present.

2022

2023

2024

2025

2026

The hands are, generally, in the same place as the pitch is being delivered, and getting the bat in the zone has not really been a problem for him. What has changed is his leg kick.

It had been pretty consistent through the 2025 season. It wasn’t over-exaggerated and allowed him to have a controlled swing that produced a lot of contact (85.8 Contact%) — just not hard contact (23.4 HardHit%). Now we see what he has done in Spring Training with the Dodgers and it looks significantly different. The leg kick is much more exaggerated, which also makes the swing look more powerful. And so far, the results have been there.

He talked a bit about what he’s been working on with the Dodgers’ coaches in camp.

“‘I feel like the offense part of it, I’ve been working consistently with the hitting coaches, just looking at videos, looking at little details,’ Espinal said last week. ‘There’s either something going on with my lower body or something going on with my upper body. Where are my hands at, all this stuff, so that’s something that we literally every day just work on. So just make sure that my body feels great.’One simple modification that has brought success to Espinal is getting the bat off his shoulder and attacking the count early. A more aggressive approach has served him well thus far in camp.‘Being more aggressive in my swing path,’ Espinal said. ‘Make sure that it’s there. Make sure that it’s straight to the ball and not opening up and that stuff, but it’s a constant work that we’ve been doing every day and so far, it’s been great.’”

Another thing to monitor as Espinal gets set to break camp with the big league club is his Pull AIR%. The MLB average is 16.7%. Espinal’s career mark is 17.4%, which is a bit surprising for a guy who makes as much contact as he does and hasn’t hit for a lot power in the past. While the Pull AIR% isn’t available with Spring Training stats, his overall Pull% has dipped by 6 percentage points from his mark last year. However, his fly ball rate (FB%) is up almost 3 percentage points, while his line drive percentage is up almost 8 percentage points. If Espinal can be a 23-25 LD% hitter, maintain an 80-plus percent contact rate and continue to lift the ball to the pull side, the Dodgers just might have something. A lot of things have to fall into place, but it isn’t as impossible as it may have seemed when the Dodgers signed him.

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It has been a minute since the Dodgers have produced a new Max Muncy or Chris Taylor. The odds are heavily against Espinal becoming that kind of player, but getting him back to being an average MLB player would be a huge win for the developmental staff and Espinal himself.