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Teoscar Hernandez returns to Dodgers on three-year deal
Teoscar Hernandez returns to Dodgers on three-year deal
The Los Angeles Dodgers are re-signing free agent outfielder Teoscar Hernandez to a three-year, $66 million deal, he announced on Instagram Friday. Yancen Pujols was among the first to report the terms of the signing.
This news comes roughly 24 hours after MLB Network insider Jon Heyman wrote for the New York Post that Hernandez “flat out told” him that he “1,000 percent” wanted to return to the Dodgers.
The 32-year-old bet on himself last year with Los Angeles and had a career year. He slashed .272/.339/.501 with a career-high 33 home runs and 99 RBIs, sporting a 137 OPS+. He earned his third career Silver Slugger award–his first since 2021, his penultimate season with the Toronto Blue Jays.
According to ESPN MLB insider Jeff Passan, at least $23 million of the deal is deferred, with a $23 million signing bonus. In classic Dodgers fashion, Hernandez joins Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Blake Snell, among others, in having deferred contracts with the Dodgers.
He’s finished in the 87th percentile or better in barrel rate in six of his last seven seasons, including in the 94th percentile last season, according to Baseball Savant. In 2024, he also graded in the 81st percentile in hard-hit rate and expected weighted on-base average, even though there is plenty of swing-and-miss in his game.
The Dodgers are loaded, and while there may be some defensive risk with an aging Hernandez–who’s never graded out as a good defender–this is still a great pairing for both sides.
Hernandez is a premier middle-of-the-order bat protected by Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Will Smith and Tommy Edman. If he’s healthy for at least 130-140 games, you can book-end him for roughly 30 homers with 30 doubles.
It would’ve been difficult to replace his kind of production in an outfield that’s been pretty unstable the last couple of seasons. Now that they retained their power bat, I’m curious to see how Los Angeles attacks the rest of the offseason, regardless of whether they win the Rosi Sasaki sweepstakes.
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This is a breaking news story. Stay tuned for updates.
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