Cleveland Guardians pitching prospect draws loftiest of comparisons

Finally some positive news concerning the Cleveland Guardians: One of their top prospects, was recently called a “Unicorn.”

Cleveland recently found one on the basketball side in Evan Mobley, and the latest is hard throwing pitching prospect Daniel Espino, who was taken 24th overall in the 2019 MLB Draft.

Espino was touching 100 miles per hour coming out of high school, so you knew the kid had talent, but coming out of high school, you never know if a top prospect is going to convert what everyone thinks he can be into an actual entity on the mound.

So far, so good for Espino. Fangraph’s Eric Longenhagen had the loftiest of comparisons for the hard-throwing right-hander. He called Espino’s three innings of work the “some of the most impressive stuff I’ve ever seen from a pitching prospect.”

"“In terms of my own in-person looks, his stuff over about three innings of work in a minor league spring game against Cincinnati…ranked up there in sheer power and dominance with what I saw from Gerrit Cole in the 2011 Fall League, Stephen Strasburg’s first home start at Double-A Harrisburg (which was so heavily attended that the stadium sold out of food and suffered a brownout), and (hesitates to type the following) a Jacob deGrom start in Arizona last year.”"

Another notable takeaway from the author’s observations is the movement on Espino’s heater. Longenhagen wrote that he was touching 98-100 and that several of his fastballs had 20-23 inches of vertical break.

His outing can be viewed on YouTube.

He indicated this is because of Espino’s arm slot changing since high school, to be more vertical than it was when he was a prep star.

MLB Pipeline lists Espnio’s estimated big-league arrival date as 2023. But knowing the Guardians, 2024 is more likely. He’s never pitched out of high A before and it’s a good bet he starts the season with Class AA Akron. Again, being only 21, the Guards aren’t going to rush him.

No matter when Espino arrives, don’t fret. Oscar Mercado will probably still be battling Bradley Zimmer for one of the constantly open outfield spots.

Sorry I couldn’t help myself. The Guardians are all in on pitching, which is hardly a secret. Remember, they took 10 pitchers among their first 11 draft picks last summer.

Their current staff is one of the reasons why I don’t understand why everyone thinks they’re going to be so bad in 2022.

This is pretty much the same club that won 80 games a season ago with its top three pitchers, Shane Bieber, Aaron Civale and Zach Plesac all spending major time on the Injured List.

All are healthy for the start of 2022, while Cal Quantrill flourished when given the chance to eat up innings with the rotation decimated by injuries. Quantrill went 7-1 after the All-Star break with a 1.94 ERA.