Manuel Espinoza has one of the most interesting backstories in the Cubs system. He was originally signed in 2017 as an international free agent out of Mexico. However, his contract came under scrutiny, along with Florencio Serrano, and it took Major League Baseball a whole year to sort things out with their contracts. Eventually, Serrano was given his freedom to sign with another team while Espinoza’s contract was deemed acceptable and he officially became a Cub last summer in Mesa.
Basic info
Position – Pitcher
Height – 6′
Weight – 175
Throws – Right
From – Culiacan Rosales, Sinaloa, Mexico
2019 Affiliate – Mesa Cubs 2
2020 Affiliate – Eugene
Age: Just turned 19
Despite his slight frame, Espinoza has something I like to call pitchability. For an 18-year-old kid/international free agent to have that an early age is remarkable. But Espinoza knows what he’s doing on the mound. He can command his fastball and curveball and can throw his fastball in the low 90s. He’s not going to overpower anyone just yet, but he is going to be able to throw with a high degree of certainty. By that, I mean he’s going to put the ball where he wants it.
Originally signed for $400,000, Espinoza debuted in Mesa last year and quickly got to work. In fact, he had one of the best campaigns of any short season pitcher. In 11 games, he made seven starts with a 2.49 ERA. He struck out 37 batters in 47 innings and walked just 9. That’s a little over 5 Ks for every 1 BB.
When I began to break down his statistics, Espinoza’s ERA was under three every month. Unfortunately, he wasn’t the biggest draw on the team. More people paid attention to Richard Gallardo than Espinoza. They should not have. Still, the Cubs may have several young teenage pitchers who could be a lot of fun to watch in Eugene this summer.
While I don’t have any video for you of Espinoza pitching, every report on him that I’ve been able to read has been glowing in terms of his makeup and his ability to throw strikes. The fact that he is still a physically projectable kid helps, but the fact that he knows what a strike is and how to throw one at this age supersedes anything else.
While I did say Eugene was his probable landing spot, I was holding out this winter that he might make it up to South Bend in late May/early June when the first round of promotions take place. Now that baseball’s been delayed, that scenario is definitely not going to happen. All of baseball is going to be lucky to be playing by the middle of June. But when it does gear back up, Espinoza is going to be one guy to watch consistently at Eugene.
Here is Espinoza in his own words talking about his pro experience. You can set the captions to translate it for you from Spanish to English.
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