31-year-old Paolo Alesandro Espino Alonso was born on January 10, 1987, he is a Panamanian professional baseball pitcher for the Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has played in MLB for the Milwaukee Brewers and Texas Rangers.
Espino attended The Pendleton School in Bradenton, Florida. The Cleveland Indians selected him in the 10th round of the 2006 Major League Baseball draft. Espino began his professional career in 2007 with the Single-A Lake County Captains.
On January 15, 2019, Espino signed a minor league deal with the Washington Nationals. He was assigned to AAA Fresno Grizzlies to start the 2019 season, where he spent the entire year. In 2020, he was invited to Spring Training with the Nationals and was added to their initial 60-man player pool.
On September 21, 2020, Espino was selected to the 40-man and active rosters. In 2020 for the Nationals, Espino appeared in 2 games, allowing 3 earned runs in 6.0 innings with 7 strikeouts. Espino was outrighted to the minor leagues on October 9, 2020, and elected free agency the next day.
Espino re-signed with the Nationals on a minor league contract on November 2, 2020. On April 18, 2021, Espino was selected to the active roster after Stephen Strasburg was placed on the injured list.
On June 16, 2021, Espino won his first major league game, pitching five shutout innings in a 3–1 win over the Pittsburgh Pirates. On June 23, 2021, he earned his first major league saves by pitching a scoreless bottom of the ninth inning in a 13–12 win against the Philadelphia Phillies.