Rangers Select Ben Peoples
The Rangers announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Ben Peoples. Fellow righty Winston Santos has been optioned to Triple-A Round Rock to open an active roster spot. The 40-man roster had a couple of vacancies, so Peoples can fill one of those without a corresponding move. Additionally, the Rangers have signed infielder Santiago Espinal and righty Austin Voth to minor league deals, per Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News.
Peoples, 25, was just acquired from the White Sox in a trade earlier this week. A former 22nd-round pick of the Rays in 2019, Peoples was traded to the White Sox at last year’s deadline in the deal which sent Adrian Houser from Chicago to Tampa.
He was initially a starter but a lack of control got Peoples moved to a relief role a couple of years ago. The control hasn’t exactly improved but he has been working around that by racking up strikeouts. This year, he has thrown 37 2/3 Triple-A innings, allowing 2.39 earned runs per nine. His 14% walk rate is extremely high but he has punched out 30% of batters faced. His fastball is averaging just under 96 miles per hour as he also mixes in a slider and changeup.
It seems the White Sox didn’t plan on calling up Peoples anytime soon and he was slated for minor league free agency at season’s end. Instead, they flipped him to Texas for High-A catcher Ben Hartl. Texas, meanwhile, will add him directly onto the big league roster to see how his stuff plays in the majors.
Espinal, 31, had some good seasons with the Blue Jays but has mostly been a light-hitting utility guy for a few years. Dating back to the start of 2023, he has taken 1,033 trips to the plate and produced a .247/.296/.328 line, which translates to a wRC+ of 71. That includes 60 trips to the plate with the Dodgers this year with a .268/.276/.375 line.
Despite the lack of offense, he can be a useful player. At the plate, he has generally been better against lefties, so his downside can be minimized with strategic deployment. He is also a sure hand at shortstop, second base and third base. He can even play first base or an outfield corner in a pinch. He elected free agency a few weeks ago after being cut loose by the Dodgers.
For the Rangers, they get to add some extra infield depth, which is important for them. Shortstop Corey Seager has been on and off the injured list a few times this year. His back has been an ongoing issue this year and just put him back on the IL yesterday. Texas also lost bench infielder Cody Freeman to the IL in June due to a herniated disc in his back. Per McFarland today, Freeman underwent surgery and could be back within a month.
Currently, the Texas infield consists of Nicky Lopez at short, Ezequiel Durán at second and Josh Jung at third. Justin Foscue gets some playing time at second but usually only against lefties. Josh Smith and Cam Cauley are also in the mix. Should another injury arise, Espinal will be ready at Triple-A and could provide the club a veteran role player with some weaknesses but also some strengths.
Voth, 34, has been bouncing around as an emergency bulk guy this year. Three times this year, he has been added to a club’s roster to make one appearance, and then has been promptly bumped off right after. The first two were with the Blue Jays, the third with the Twins. Over those three appearances, he has allowed 11 earned runs in 10 innings.
That leads to an unpleasant 9.90 ERA. He looks much better when focusing on his larger track record and this year’s minor league numbers. In 370 1/3 big league innings overall, he has a 4.84 ERA, 21.5% strikeout rate and 8.4% walk rate. In Triple-A this year, he has a 3.65 ERA, 20.6% strikeout rate and 7.7% walk rate in 44 1/3 innings.
The Rangers recently lost Jack Leiter to the injured list. They have since moved Cal Quantrill into the rotation alongside Jacob deGrom, Nathan Eovaldi, MacKenzie Gore and Kumar Rocker. They recently signed Chris Paddack to make one appearance and give that group a breather, but he was designated for assignment immediately after and is now a free agent.
They don’t have great depth options available. Jordan Montgomery and Cody Bradford are on the injured list. Santos, David Davalillo and José Corniell are on the 40-man but all three have ERAs above 5.57 in the minors this year. Marco Gonzales is in the system on a minor league deal but has a 7.89 ERA in Triple-A this year. If the Rangers need another spot start in the near future, Voth gives them another option to potentially turn to.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Santiago Espinal Elects Free Agency
Santiago Espinal has cleared waivers and elected free agency, according to the MLB.com transaction log. The Dodgers designated the veteran infielder for assignment on Tuesday when Tommy Edman returned from injury.
Espinal has been outrighted twice this season. The first came when Kiké Hernández returned from the injured list. Hernández quickly went back down with injury, so the Dodgers re-signed Espinal as soon he cleared waivers. The roster fit is tougher with Edman back, as it’d probably require the utilityman accepting a minor league deal and reporting to Triple-A Oklahoma City.
A glove-first infielder, Espinal impressed the Dodgers on a non-roster invite to Spring Training. He hit .268 in 36 games this year but only walked once and recorded four extra-base hits. Espinal had a couple league average offensive seasons with the Blue Jays from 2021-22. He’s a .247/.296/.328 hitter in more than 1000 trips to the plate over the past four seasons.
Dodgers Designate Santiago Espinal For Assignment
4:43pm: The Dodgers have now officially reinstated Edman and designated Espinal for assignment.
8:38am: The Dodgers will designate infielder Santiago Espinal for assignment as the corresponding move for today’s activation of utilityman Tommy Edman, manager Dave Roberts told the team’s beat late last night (via Katie Woo of The Athletic).
It’ll be Espinal’s second DFA of the past few weeks. The Dodgers signed him to a minor league contract over the winter, and he clearly made a strong impression in spring training. He hit .378/.415/.644 in 53 plate appearances, and Roberts indicated barely two weeks into camp that Espinal was extremely likely to make the team.
That huge spring production hasn’t carried over to the regular season. Espinal has taken 60 plate appearances and turned in a .268/.276/.375 slash that relatively closely resembles his lifetime .261/.314/.350 output in 1836 trips to the plate as a major leaguer. He’s played third base, second base and first base for Los Angeles so far this season and also has some prior, albeit limited experience at shortstop (343 innings) and in the outfield (114 innings).
Espinal, 31, is a veteran of seven major league seasons who has more than six years of big league service. He had a particularly nice run with the Blue Jays in 2021-22, when he slashed .282/.340/.382 in 737 turns at the plate. The output was obviously light on power, but he did connect on nine round-trippers and 38 doubles, chipping in a triple and a dozen steals along the way. He struck out in a tiny 13.3% of his plate appearances against a 7.9% walk rate.
Espinal’s bat hasn’t been the same since. He’s totaled 1033 plate appearances between the Jays, Reds and Dodgers but mustered only a .247/.296/.328 line in that time. He still rarely strikes out (13.2%), but Espinal’s walk rate and already minimal power output have dipped to untenable levels.
The Dodgers will outright, release or trade Espinal within the next week. He already signed a new minor league contract after being designated for assignment last month. Another return on a minor league deal can’t be ruled out, but with Edman now healthy and each of Alex Freeland, Miguel Rojas and Hyeseong Kim on the 40-man roster (the latter currently in Triple-A), Espinal might prefer to seek out an opportunity with another organization whose infield/bench group is less crowded.
Dodgers Re-Sign Santiago Espinal
8:08pm: Los Angeles officially announced the moves, as well as yesterday’s placement of Teoscar Hernández on the injured list while recalling Ryan Ward from Triple-A. They opened the 40-man spot by transferring Blake Snell from the 15-day to the 60-day injured list. Snell was already expected to be out beyond the All-Star Break after undergoing the NanoScope elbow procedure to remove loose bodies from his elbow.
5:35pm: The Dodgers are re-signing infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal, per Jack Harris of The California Post. Infielder/outfielder Hyeseong Kim will be optioned in a corresponding active roster move. The Dodgers have a full 40-man roster and will need to make a corresponding move to add Espinal.
Espinal was just nudged off the roster on Monday when Enrique Hernández came off the injured list. A lot has changed since then. Hernández suffered a significant oblique tear and has gone right back on the IL. Teoscar Hernández also hit the IL this week, in his case due to a hamstring strain. Espinal cleared waivers and elected free agency but has now pivoted right back to the Dodgers.
In addition to losing both Hernándezes to the IL, the Dodgers have been watching Kim struggle. His .259/.323/.328 line for the whole year isn’t awful, leading to an 87 wRC+, but his production has been sagging lately. He had a .296/.371/.389 line when the calendar flipped to May but he has a .226/.279/.274 line since then.
Espinal may not provide much more than that, considering he has a .220/.238/.366 line on the year. But perhaps the Dodgers feel the best thing for Kim is to get regular playing time in the minors, as opposed to sitting on the bench. Alex Freeland was recalled when Enrique went back on the IL and should get the bulk of the second base playing time in the near future.
Kim is 27 years old, signed through 2027, with club options for 2028 and 2029. Espinal is 31 and not signed long-term. It therefore makes sense for the Dodgers to think about the long-term plan with Kim, whereas Espinal is more of a short-term stopgap and therefore a better fit for a part-time bench role.
Though Espinal may not provide much with the bat, he can be useful in other ways. He has experience at all four infield spots, as well as the outfield corners, so he can give the Dodgers the flexibility to move guys around as needed.
Photo courtesy of Jayne Kamin-Oncea, Imagn Images
Dodgers Reinstate Kiké Hernández, Designate Santiago Espinal
The Dodgers announced that they have reinstated utilityman Kiké Hernández from the 60-day injured list. To make room for Hernández, the Dodgers designated infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal for assignment.
A couple of weeks after Hernández won his third World Series as a member of the Dodgers, he underwent elbow surgery in mid-November. That put Hernández in a less-than-ideal spot in free agency, but the Dodgers wound up bringing him back on a one-year, $4.5MM deal in February. They retained a revered clubhouse presence and someone who can line up all over the field, though Hernández has seen his offensive impact fall off in recent seasons.
From 2014-21, which he divided between Houston, Miami, LA and Boston, Hernández hit .242/.318/.430 in 2,593 plate appearances. That was 1 percent better than the league average, according to wRC+. From 2022-25, split between Boston and LA, Hernández limped to a .232/.297/.382 line in 2,144 trips to the plate. His 84 wRC+ in that stretch was 16 percent below average. The 34-year-old will aim for a rebound this season after one of his worst offensive seasons in 2025. While playing through his elbow injury for a large portion of the year, Hernández hit .203/.255/.366 (70 wRC+) in 93 games and 256 plate appearances. Defensively, he saw 20-plus games worth of action at first, second, third and in the outfield.
In his season debut Monday against the Rockies, Hernández will fill in at the hot corner for Max Muncy and bat ninth. Muncy has been down since the the Brewers’ Aaron Ashby struck him in the right wrist with a 95.5 mph sinker on Friday. X-rays came back negative, but Muncy will get a third straight off day to recover.
Espinal, who saw big league time with the Blue Jays and Reds from 2020-25, settled for a minors deal with the Dodgers last offseason. They selected Espinal’s contract in late March, setting him up to earn a $2.5MM salary. The light-hitting 31-year-old struggled to a .220/.238/.366 line (67 wRC+) with one home run in 44 plate appearances. Espinal appeared in 26 games and played first, second and third before the Dodgers designated him, though he started in just nine contests.
Espinal is now heading into DFA limbo, which can last up to a week’s time. There is a 48-hour waiver process, meaning the Dodgers could take five days to swing a trade. Finding a taker should be tough when you combine Espinal’s salary with his subpar production. If a trade does not come together, Espinal has enough service time (over five years) to reject an outright assignment and keep the rest of his guaranteed salary.
Photo courtesy of Kirby Lee, Imagn Images.
Dodgers Activate Mookie Betts
May 11th: Betts has now been officially reinstated, with Freeland optioned as the corresponding move. Jack Harris of the California Post reported earlier today that Freeland would be sent down for Betts.
May 10th, 10:55pm: The Dodgers and Espinal renegotiated the 45-day deadline attached to the advanced consent clause in Espinal’s contract, Katie Woo writes. Under the previous clause, the Dodgers could have released Espinal within the first 45 days of his contract and owed the infielder only the prorated portion of Espinal’s $2.5MM guaranteed salary. The reworked clause pushed forward that 45-day deadline, which Woo views as a sign that Espinal will be kept on the active roster, so Kim or Freeland will be optioned upon Betts’ return.
3:34pm: Mookie Betts has been out for over a month with a right oblique strain, but he is now on the cusp of returning to the Dodgers. After two rehab games, Betts is returning to Los Angeles today and is expected to be activated from the 10-day injured list tomorrow, according to Katie Woo of The Athletic.
Betts only made 32 plate appearances with a 99 wRC+ before landing on the 10-day injured list on April 5. That’s a negligible sample size on its own, though it also mirrors Betts’ diminished offensive output in 2025. In 150 games, he batted .258/.326/.406 with a 104 wRC+. That still made Betts an above-average hitter, but not to the heights he has set in his career. Betts won the AL MVP award with the Red Sox in 2018 and was at least 31% better than average by wRC+ in every season from 2019-24. It’s hard to criticize a hitter for merely being slightly above average, of course, and Betts’ track record gives the Dodgers plenty of confidence that he can return to normal as he distances himself from this injury.
There is also reason to believe Betts was unlucky last year. For one thing, he batted just .258 on balls in play, well below his career BABIP of .299. While Betts’ 89.1 MPH average exit velocity and 35.8% hard-hit rate were both lower than in 2024, his batting average, slugging percentage, and wOBA were all 9-16 points lower than their expected values.
Betts’ relative lack of offensive pop was offset by his superb defensive work at shortstop, and of course he was still a big contributor to the Dodgers’ second consecutive World Series victory. Even this year, losing Betts for over a month hasn’t slowed Los Angeles down, as the 24-15 Dodgers are again atop the NL West.
The duo of Hyeseong Kim and Miguel Rojas have capably filled in at shortstop during Betts’ absence, and Kim in particular has performed well, hitting .301/.366/.411 over 82 PA this season. Rojas will return to backup infield duty once Betts is back at shortstop, leaving the Dodgers to decide between Kim, Santiago Espinal and Alex Freeland at second base. Kim and Freeland have minor league options remaining, while Espinal (who has only a .438 OPS over 34 PA) would have to be designated for assignment if removed from the 26-man roster.
Dodgers Select Santiago Espinal
March 20th: Espinal will make a salary of $2.5MM, reports Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic.
March 18th: The Dodgers announced that they have selected the contract of infielder/outfielder Santiago Espinal. They opened a 40-man roster spot earlier this month when outfielder Jack Suwinski was outrighted, so no corresponding move is necessary today.
Opening Day is still over a week away. With the Dodgers selecting Espinal’s contract now, it’s possible he had some sort of opt-out in his minor league deal. At any rate, there wasn’t much mystery regarding his status. A couple of weeks ago, manager Dave Roberts said that Espinal was trending towards making the team.
Espinal should provide the club with defensive versatility, while ideally helping against lefty pitching. In his career, Espinal has played all four infield spots as well as the outfield corners. Offensively, his right-handed bat is best deployed as part of a platoon. He has a career .291/.344/.409 line and 107 wRC+ against southpaws, compared to a .245/.300/.316 line and 73 wRC+ against righties.
He’s a few years removed from his best years at the plate, which were with the Blue Jays in 2021 and 2022. He slashed .282/.340/.382 for a 105 wRC+ over those two seasons. Since then, he has a .245/.298/.325 line over three seasons, a period which saw him get flipped to the Reds. That includes a rough .243/.292/.282 line and 58 wRC+ in 2025. The Reds outrighted him off the roster at season’s end and he elected free agency.
Tommy Edman and Enrique Hernández are going to open the season on the injured list. That leaves the second base spot fairly open, with guys like Hyeseong Kim and Miguel Rojas in the mix there. Kim is a lefty hitter but he was better against southpaws in 2025, so perhaps a platoon with Espinal isn’t perfect. In any case, Espinal can add some depth on the bench.
The Dodgers have a relatively old roster, as guys in their mid-30s like Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, Freddie Freeman and Teoscar Hernández should have regular roles. If anyone in that group is banged up or just needs a day off, Espinal can move around as needed.
Photo courtesy of Mark J. Rebilas, Imagn Images
Roberts: “Hard To Imagine” Espinal Not Making Dodgers’ Roster
Veteran infielder Santiago Espinal is in Dodgers camp as a non-roster invitee, but it seems he’s already positioned himself as a favorite to break camp with the club. Manager Dave Roberts said this morning that it’s “hard to imagine [Espinal] not being on the team” (via Jack Harris of the California Post). Plenty can change over the final few weeks of camp, but it’s still notable that Espinal already has caught the attention of his new skipper. Roberts spoke highly of Espinal when players reported to camp, and the veteran infielder has since gone 8-for-14 with a pair of doubles and a stolen base in his first handful of Cactus League plate appearances.
Espinal is a versatile, righty-swinging infielder with considerable experience at both third base (1794 MLB innings) and second base (1621 innings). He’s also logged 343 major league frames at shortstop (most coming back in 2020), chipped in 114 innings in the outfield corners and logged another 16 at first base. It’s the sort of defensive flexibility that the Dodgers tend to prioritize with their bench players.
The 31-year-old Espinal has spent the past two seasons in Cincinnati, struggling at the plate both years. He hit a combined .245/.294/.322 in 719 plate appearances as a Red but provided some solid defensive chops at the hot corner in particular. He’d be more of a second base option with the Dodgers — a potential right-handed complement to lefty-hitting Hyeseong Kim, who’s entering the second season of a three-year contract.
Kim played superlative second base defense last season but was largely shielded from left-handed pitching. He hit well in the 21 left-on-left plate appearances the Dodgers allowed him to take (8-for-21 with a double and a homer), but Kim also fanned at a near-31% clip in 170 plate appearances overall and posted poor batted-ball metrics. Espinal is a career .291/.344/.409 hitter versus left-handed pitching. Back in 2021-22, he slashed a combined .282/.340/.382 in 737 plate appearances for the Blue Jays.
Second base is eventually earmarked for the versatile Tommy Edman, but he’s expected to begin the season on the injured list as he continues recovering from November ankle surgery. Kim’s stellar defense gives him a strong chance to secure regular work at second base in the interim, though veteran Miguel Rojas is on hand as an alternative, as is well-regarded prospect Alex Freeland.
Breaking camp with Espinal on the roster would allow the Dodgers to more easily get Freeland everyday at-bats back in Triple-A. The switch-hitting 24-year-old was L.A.’s third-round pick in 2022 and is a year removed from ranking among baseball’s top-100 prospects at Baseball America and MLB.com. He turned in a nice .263/.384/.451 batting line in Triple-A last season (115 wRC+) but hit .190/.292/.310 with 35 strikeouts in 97 MLB plate appearances.
Dodgers To Sign Santiago Espinal To Minor League Deal
The Dodgers are adding Santiago Espinal on a minor league deal, per Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic. Espinal is in big-league camp with the team. The veteran infielder is a client of Rimas Sports Agency.
The Espinal news comes on the heels of the announcement that Tommy Edman will begin the year on the IL, which manager Dave Roberts shared with reporters (including Ardaya) this morning. Edman is coming off ankle surgery and was known to be taking a gradual approach to building up for the regular season.
Roberts mentioned Miguel Rojas, Alex Freeland, and Hyeseong Kim as candidates to pick up work at second base (relayed by Sonja Chen of MLB.com). Espinal could join that mix if he makes the team.
The 31-year-old Espinal struggled mightily with the Reds last season. He posted a 58 wRC+ while spending time at all four infield positions, plus both corner outfield spots. Espinal, never known for his power, amassed 328 plate appearances without a home run. Cincinnati sent Espinal outright to Triple-A Louisville at the end of October. He rejected the assignment and entered free agency.
After a brief debut with Toronto in the shortened 2020 season, Espinal became an important part of the Blue Jays’ lineup in 2021. He slashed .311/.376/.405 in 92 games as Toronto’s semi-regular third baseman. Espinal slid over to second base the following year, delivering a perfectly league-average 100 wRC+ in a career-high 135 games.
Espinal’s production tailed off in 2023. His OPS fell to .644 in a utility role. Toronto traded him to Cincinnati for right-hander Chris McElvain shortly before the 2024 campaign. He added both corner outfield spots and first base to his lengthy list of defensive positions while with the Reds, but his tenure with the team was otherwise forgettable.
The main draw for Espinal is the ability to provide credible defense in several areas. He hasn’t been a plus-defender in terms of Defensive Runs Saved in recent seasons, but he’s kept his head above water in both the infield and outfield. Outs Above Average had Espinal as a +2 in 2025.
Photo courtesy of Katie Stratman, Imagn Images
Santiago Espinal Elects Free Agency
TODAY: As expected, Espinal rejected the outright assignment and chose to become a free agent, the Cincinnati Enquirer’s Gordon Wittenmyer reports.
OCTOBER 31: The Reds announced today that infielder Santiago Espinal has been sent outright to Triple-A Louisville. That indicates he cleared waivers in recent days. He has the right to elect free agency and will presumably do so in the coming days.
It’s common for clubs to clear roster space at this time of year. The offseason will begin in the coming days, which means the injured list goes away. Players on the 60-day IL will need to retake roster spots, though some players are also heading to free agency. The Reds don’t have a super tight roster crunch at the moment. RosterResource pegs them at 38 guys for the start of the winter, though picking up options on Brent Suter and Scott Barlow could have got them back up to 40. Espinal’s removal drops them to 37, not including Suter or Barlow.
Even if the Reds don’t strictly need a roster spot right now, there’s value in opening one. Perhaps some interesting players will be put on waivers by other clubs in the coming days. The Reds will also presumably want to add a few players to the roster to protect them from being selected in the Rule 5 draft.
Espinal wasn’t going to be long for the roster anyway. His performance has been declining for a while now. He could have been retained for the 2026 season via arbitration, with MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projecting a $2.9MM salary, but the Reds were going to non-tender him.
The infielder had some decent results with the Blue Jays a few years ago, even making the All-Star team in 2022, but he hasn’t done much since then. He has stepped to the plate 973 times in the past three years with a combined .245/.298/.325 line and 71 wRC+. That includes a .243/.292/.282 line and 58 wRC+ in 2025.
At his best, Espinal can play multiple positions while hitting lefties. As recently as last year, though his overall offense was poor, he slashed .289/.344/.491 for a 122 wRC+ against southpaws. He was still better against lefties in 2025 but hit only .265/.317/.342 for a wRC+ of 81.
Assuming he elects free agency, Espinal could get interest from clubs for a bench/utility role, either on a minor league pact or a modest big league deal. He has experience at all four infield spots as well as the outfield corners.
Photo courtesy of Rick Osentoski, Imagn Images