The Los Angeles Dodgers may not have all the superstars, but they sure do have a lot of them.
So fine, the Dodgers weren’t able to convince Juan Soto to sign in LA. That’s alright, they still have Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, and Freddie Freeman on the hitting side and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Tyler Glasnow, and Blake Snell on the pitching side. They’re loaded to the gills.
As if winning a World Series wasn’t enough, the Dodgers have also been very active this winter. They not only signed Snell to help anchor their rotation, but added Michael Conforto to their outfield and re-upped with reliever Blake Treinen for two more years.
But what if the Dodgers still aren’t done adding? And what if their next move is the one that Dodgers fans have been hoping would come down the pipeline all along?
Free-agent outfielder Teoscar Hernández was fantastic after signing a one-year deal with the Dodgers in 2024, and has expressed his desire to stay with the team that won him his first championship. Recently, Michael Brakebill of FanSided predicted that Hernández would indeed return to the Dodgers on a long-term deal.
“The Dodgers were close to landing Teoscar Hernandez back toward the beginning of free agency, and it appears to be a deal that’s already etched in stone without Hernandez signing on the dotted line,” Brakebill said.
“The Dodgers went for it with Juan Soto, just in case they could land him, but were never really a favorite. Hernandez slashed .272/.339/.501 with 33 home runs and 99 RBIs in 2024, production that L.A. will welcome back with open arms.”
At 32, Hernández is at the peak of his powers, and he did a ton of damage in Dodger blue this season. With an .840 OPS, 137 OPS+, and a career-high 33 home runs, it was arguably the best year of Hernández’s entire MLB tenure to this point.
Hernández was recently projected for a five-year, $100 million contract (Joel Reuter, Bleacher Report), which is certainly a far more substantial financial commitment than the Dodgers made to the slugger last time around.
But if there’s a will, there’s a way, and there’s clearly a will on Hernández’s side of the equation. The Dodgers will have to bridge the gap to prove they still want Hernández as much as he wants to play for them.
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