Guardians' plan beyond comeback kid Daniel Espino with season on the brink is a total mystery

The Cleveland Guardians are facing the most dire situation a baseball team can have in front of them, at the moment, needing to win three consecutive games in order to stave off elimination at the hands of their AL Central rivals. One loss in the next two road games and Cleveland's remarkable flight from the depths to the top of the division ends in disappointment and dissidence.

Knowing full well that he may not have anyone on the roster more equipped to persist in an impossible situation, Cleveland manager Stephen Vogt went with right-hander Daniel Espino to open Game 3.

Once the confetti has settled and the pomp and circumstance has quieted down, the Guardians will be sending to the mound the man who has looked stardom in the eyes, lost most of 2022, all of 2023 and 2024, and hurled just 2/3 of a rickety inning in 2025, and has now risen again.

How much does he have to give? That depends. How much can a man have?

Daniel Espino will start Game 3 for the Cleveland Guardians against the Chicago White Sox

Espino's barking shoulder sent him down the list of Guardians top prospects (and the game's very best) into oblivion. His singular appearance with Triple-A Columbus last year did not go as planned, but the fact that it happened at all felt like a borderline miracle.

One year later, after pitching 36 2/3 Triple-A innings and whiffing 49 men, and adding 25 Ks in 15 1/3 big-league frames, Espino is somewhere between a wild card and a prayer. He's not Carlos Carrasco, but he's not Ryan Merritt, either. Crazier things have happened, and Espino does have the pedigree.

After him? Who knows. The Guardians, who've struggled to get to the closer, let alone reach the bridge, throughout this series' first two games, will have to mix and match. Will Joey Cantillo follow, as he's done before? Stephen Vogt doesn't want you to know, so ... we don't.

But we do know Espino's triple-digit heat will be the first thing Sam Antonacci sees in the bottom of the first, after the first-pitch stars have walked back to their suites, never to be heard from again. And that's not a bad thing to bank on.

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