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Winter Leagues: Edwin Espinal Continues to Hit as He Nears Possible Free Agency

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In the Dominican on Saturday night, Edwin Espinal collected his first home run of the winter (see video below). He homered 15 times for Altoona this year. He also singled, walked and had an RBI ground out. Espinal is making things very interesting for the Pittsburgh Pirates, especially after what we learned on Saturday and reported here. The Pirates signed two of their potential minor league free agents before they could hit free agency next month.

Espinal is clearly the biggest prize of their upcoming free agents, yet he wasn’t one of the first ones signed. There is no reason to sign early on Espinal’s part because he could market himself around if the Pirates won’t give him a 40-man roster spot. While it’s still early in the winter, a decision on whether to add him or not needs to be made soon, so every game is a showcase for Espinal. He’s batting .429 through seven games and has walked five times.

John Dreker
John Dreker
John started working at Pirates Prospects in 2009, but his connection to the Pittsburgh Pirates started exactly 100 years earlier when Dots Miller debuted for the 1909 World Series champions. John was born in Kearny, NJ, two blocks from the house where Dots Miller grew up. From that hometown hero connection came a love of Pirates history, as well as the sport of baseball. When he didn't make it as a lefty pitcher with an 80+ MPH fastball and a slider that needed work, John turned to covering the game, eventually focusing in on the prospects side, where his interest was pushed by the big league team being below .500 for so long. John has covered the minors in some form since the 2002 season, and leads the draft and international coverage on Pirates Prospects. He writes daily on Pittsburgh Baseball History, when he's not covering the entire system daily throughout the entire year on Pirates Prospects.

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