Eduardo Escobar Finds Success Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Credit: Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports

A couple days ago, half-jokingly I tweeted something to the tune of vote in Eduardo Escobar to the MLB All-Star Game. My last campaign was for Chris Colabello after he was left off the ballot. Now, if you can recall the ballot came out while Colabello was still on a hot streak and I felt justified in calling for him to be written in. I probably was the curse that sent him on this downward spiral and for that I am truly sorry.

I don’t think I can curse Eduardo Escobar. I’ve been riding on the Escobar bandwagon for so long that I’m pretty sure I have a seat pretty damn close to the front. Being at the front of the choir, I feel it is my duty to illustrate how damn good Eduardo Escobar had been this season for the Minnesota Twins.

Before Saturday’s game against the Seattle Mariners, Escobar is hitting .354/.373/.544 with nine RBI in 28 games. Escobar is the benefactor of Pedro Florimon being horrible and being sent down to Triple-A Rochester. Escobar might not have the glove that Florimon brought, but Escobar has a bat that is far and beyond the talents of Florimon.

Escobar isn’t just hitting singles to get that wonderful average either:

The problem that the Twins now face is that fans have seen Danny Santana and we all know how good he looks to be. Santana should be playing, but it’s hard to put a surging guy like Escobar on the bench.

There’s no easy solution to the problem other than putting Escobar or Santana in centerfield since Aaron Hicks should be in Triple-A but his walk-off heroics helps him stay in the majors  for another week or so. I’ll complain about it if the Twins put more shortstops in the outfield anyway. It’s a double-edged sword that might just come down on Eduardo Escobar.

Escobar should have been playing for two seasons now, but the Twins, probably more specifically manager Ron Gardenhire, were so determined to keep Pedro Florimon in the lineup that it denied Escobar a lot of the playing time he should have received. Now Santana is up and should be the one playing so he is really major league ready when the Twins as a whole are major league ready.

Twins fans are currently sitting in the glow of a .500 season, a better standing than a lot of us expected going in. It’s a miracle that the Twins are doing this well with some of the roster moves the team has made. They’ve overachieved just like Eduardo Escobar.

While sitting in the glow, take in and appreciate what Eduardo Escobar is doing, because he’s been stuck between a rock and a hard place: the stubbornness of a team trying to make someone into what he is not and the rising stock of a future star of the franchise.