The Padres signed the right-hander Jose Espada to a minor league deal earlier this month, as indicated by Espada’s MLB.com profile page. A reunion between the two sides, as the 27-year-old Espada pitched for San Diego in the 2022-23 season before joining the Yakult Swallows last season.
The trip to Japan wasn’t as much of a show as Espada had hoped, as he posted a 5.00 ERA over 27 innings for the Swallows. His strikeout rate dropped to just 13.56%, a dramatic drop from the 26.59K% he posted over 374 innings in the minor leagues. While his numbers with the Swallows’ minor league team were better, Espada had already shown plenty of quality in the minor leagues, including a 2.79 ERA in 19 1/3 innings with the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate through 2023 .
Impressive numbers at both the Double-A and Triple-A levels allowed Espada to make his MLB debut in 2023, in the form of one cup of coffee outing. Espada recorded two strikeouts and two walks in a scoreless inning of mop-up work in the Padres’ 12-2 rout of the Cardinals on Sept. 24, 2023. That brief outing was the highlight of a career that began as a fifth-round pick for Blue Jays in the 2015 draft, and Espada also had stints in the Red Sox farm system and in baseball independent and his time. with the Padres and Swallows.
Espada has had issues with his control but has been able to miss bats for a long time, making his dwindling strikeout numbers in the NPB even more puzzling. A return to the familiar territory of Triple-A El Paso could help him get back on track, while from the Padres’ point of view, they will add some known value to their list of deep bullpen arms.
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