Outfielder/designated hitter Teoscar Hernández has agreed to a one-year, $23.5 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, reports ESPN. $8.5 million of the $23.5 million is deferred and will be paid out from 2030-39. The team has not confirmed the move.
Hernández is the latest move in a very busy offseason for the Dodgers. They of course added Shohei Ohtani on a $700 million deal, the largest contract in sports history. Yoshinobu Yamamoto‘s $325 million contract is the largest pitching deal ever. Oh, and Los Angeles also traded for Tyler Glasnow and Manuel Margot. Now they’ve added Hernández, who figures to share left field duty with Margot and Chris Taylor.
Hernández, 31, was initially signed as an amateur free agent by the Astros out of the Dominican Republic in 2011 and debuted in 2016. He was then traded to the Blue Jays in 2017 with Nori Aoki for Francisco Liriano in a deadline deal. With the Blue Jays, Hernández really came into his own, topping 20 homers in a season four times, getting MVP votes twice and making the 2021 All-Star team. He was then traded to the Mariners last offseason.
In 160 games in 2023 with Seattle, Hernández hit .258/.305/.435 (106 OPS+) with 29 doubles, two triples, 26 homers, 93 RBI, 70 runs scored and 2.1 WAR. He struck out a career high 211 times, though he did close the year strong. In the final two months of the season, Hernández hit .294 with a .491 slugging percentage. He had 12 doubles, 10 homers and 34 RBI in 54 games.
Still, the Mariners declined to extend a qualifying offer to Hernández, sending him to free agency without draft compensation attached. The qualifying offer was worth $20.325 million this offseason, so a bit less than Hernández’s deal with the Dodgers.
He isn’t too old, having turned 31 on Oct. 15, and isn’t too far removed from a huge 2021 season, in which he hit .296/.346/.524 (131 OPS+) with 32 homers and 116 RBI. There’s reasonable hope that Hernández can have a nice bounce-back season in 2024, especially after his strong finish to 2023.
