For a long while this season, Nationals second baseman Danny Espinosa was in the mix for National League rookie of the year. Those chances have faded thanks to a second-half slide that has all but conceded the honor to one of the Braves’ rookies — first baseman Freddie Freeman or relief pitcher Craig Kimbrel. Espinosa now just wants to break out of his slump and set a solid foundation for 2012.
Espinosa, 24, had an .808 OPS after July 17 in Atlanta. Let’s put that in context — only four major league second basemen have a better number than that. It’s not a position with a ton of offensive stars. Only five second basemen have hit more home runs than Espinosa, who has 17. The problem? He hasn’t hit one since that July 17 game.
The batting average wasn’t very good to begin with — a high of .249 on July 7 — and has plummeted since. Espinosa is batting .225 with a .311 on-base percentage. That OPS still ranks 10th among all second baseman at .723. But the Nats don’t want to see those numbers continue to fall.
One thing several team officials, including manager Davey Johnson, have noticed is Espinosa hitting into some bad luck — hard shots right at infielders or long drives tracked down by an enterprising outfielder. The advanced stats give credence to that theory. Espinosa has a .260 batting average on balls in play. The league average hovers around .300 every time a hitter makes contact. Anything significantly below that and a player either is making weak contact — unlikely for a guy with 42 extra-base hits — or has been a little unlucky.
But Espinosa still has to find a way out of this slump. And it’s starting to affect a part of his game that was never in question — his defense. In 1,247 innings dating to his call-up last September, Espinosa has rated well above average defensively. This season only Dustin Pedroia (Boston), Ian Kins?ler (Texas), Brandon Phillips (Cincinnati) and Ben Zobrist (Tampa Bay) have been better. But the grind of a long season may be wearing on Espinosa, who has made three errors since Aug. 1. The Nats hope two days off in a row give him a needed breather.
– Brian McNally
