Dodgers Dugout: Is Teoscar Hernández what the Dodgers need?

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and it is only 71 days until the Dodgers’ first game of the season.

The Dodgers weren’t quite satisfied after spending almost $1.2 billion for Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and Tyler Glasnow. Late Sunday night, they added a right-handed, power-hitting outfielder in Teoscar Hernández.

Hernández played for the Seattle Mariners last season, hitting .258/.305/.435 with 29 doubles, 26 homers, 93 RBIs and a 108 OPS+ in 678 plate appearances. He also struck out 211 times, which would have led the Dodgers if he were with the team last season (James Outman led with 181 strikeouts). So, if the Dodgers striking out with runners on base frustrates you, get ready for more of that.

The Dodgers were looking for an outfielder who could slug against left-handers and hold his own against righties, and they have found him in Hernández.

Let’s take a look at his numbers against lefties and righties since becoming a regular in 2018. We’ll use batting average/on-base %/slugging% and OPS+. An OPS+ above 100 is above average.

2018
vs. Lefties: .217/.283/.461, 98 OPS+
vs. Righties: .250/.311/.472, 118 OPS+

2019
vs. Lefties: .247/.342/.493, 116 OPS+
vs. Righties: .222/.287/.462, 96 OPS+

2020
vs. Lefties: .275/.327/.608, 147 OPS+
vs. Righties: .295/.344/.568, 143 OPS+

2021
vs. Lefties: .372/.407/.744, 207 OPS+
vs. Righties: .273/.328/.456, 115 OPS+

2022
vs. Lefties: .286/.330/.648, 167 OPS+
vs. Righties: .262/.313/.456, 117 OPS+

2023
vs. Lefties, .287/.307/.511, 117 OPS+
vs. Righties, .249/.305/.413, 96 OPS+

Career
vs. Lefties: .275/.329/.557, 14.52 at-bats per home run
vs. Righties: .256/.312/.460, 20.52 at-bats per home run

As you can see, Hernández does very well against lefties. You can see his complete stats here. He has low on-base percentages, but he hits the ball hard and gives the team another threat against left-handed pitching.

You might be worried about his decline last season. Don’t be. He played half of his games in Seattle’s T-Mobile Park, which is a good stadium for pitchers. His home/road splits last season:

Home: .217/.263/.380, 71 OPS+
Road: .295/.344/.486, 128 OPS+

Dodger Stadium is also a pitcher’s stadium but not quite as extreme as Seattle.

He has a career .281 average with runners in scoring position.

Reports are that $8.5 million of Hernández’s deal will be deferred and paid out from 2030 to 2039.

Hernández, 31, was born Oct. 15, 1992 in Cotui, Dominican Republic. He was signed in 2011 by Houston (no relation) and was sent to Toronto in 2017. The Blue Jays dealt him to Seattle before last season. His first name is pronounced Tay-AH-sker and his wife is Jennifer. They have three kids. He has appeared in four postseason games, going three for 15 with two homers.

This seems like a good signing. Let’s see if it seems that way after the season.

A projected Dodger batting lineup:

Mookie Betts, 2B
Freddie Freeman, 1B
Shohei Ohtani, DH
Will Smith, C
Max Muncy, 3B
Teoscar Hernández, LF
James Outman, CF
Jason Heyward, RF
Gavin Lux, SS

With a bench of Austin Barnes, Manuel Margot, Miguel Rojas and Chris Taylor.

And the pitchers:

Rotation
Yoshinobu Yamamoto
Tyler Glasnow
Walker Buehler
Bobby Miller
Emmet Sheehan

Buehler will be on an innings limit this season because of his surgery and might not be ready opening day, but should be soon after.

Bullpen
Yency Almonte
*Caleb Ferguson
Brusdar Graterol
Joe Kelly
Evan Phillips
Blake Treinen
*Alex Vesia
*Ryan Yarbrough

*-left-handed

What’s next

Barring some sort of catastrophe, the Dodgers should score a lot of runs. Ohtani should be at least as good, and hopefully better, than J.D. Martinez, and Hernández is a significant upgrade over David Peralta. Another starting pitcher and reliever would be nice. And, since many of you have asked, it seems unlikely the Dodgers bring back Kiké Hernández unless they unload Taylor or Rojas.

What this all means is that we are going to have another season of just waiting for the postseason begins. So just enjoy the ride.

Max Muncy speaks

Dodger players are usually very quiet and never say anything controversial at all. Until last week, when Max Muncy appeared on the “Foul Territory” show and said the following:

“Everybody is focused on one goal. People aren’t focused on trying to get their numbers, they’re not focused on things that don’t really matter on winning the game. We’ve had some guys that kind of cared about themselves a little bit and they’ve been shipped out. I think that’s just the cool thing about it. This clubhouse, it’s such a great clubhouse every single year.”

Muncy saying there were some past Dodgers who cared about themselves and their glory over the team is an interesting comment to make. Who is he talking about? Well, it would be unprofessional to speculate in this newsletter, because there’s no way of knowing and it’s wrong to mention a player who might not be who Muncy is thinking of. You might think you know based on how individuals played, but we don’t really know. We aren’t in the dugout or in the clubhouse, where a player might be happy he homered even though the Dodgers lost.

But it’s interesting to see Dodgers straying from the usual taciturn routine they have down pat. First it was Dave Roberts talking about Ohtani when he wasn’t supposed to, not Muncy. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, just different. Muncy also said, “We have a lot of guys, new faces every year, and we always just mesh together. And that’s something the Dodgers also care about, is having clubhouse chemistry. That’s something they’ve always been focused on. When they bring in new faces, they like to do their homework and research on what kind of person they are, what kind of person they are in the clubhouse, what kind of person they are off the field, and it creates a really fun environment and it’s a place that a lot of people want to be.”

Urías won’t be charged with felony

Julio Urías will not be charged with a felony by the L.A. County District Attorney’s office. According to the office’s charge evaluation worksheet, Urías “pushed his wife against a fence and pulled her by the hair or shoulders” the night he was arrested “but neither the Victim’s injuries nor the Defendant’s criminal history justify a felony filing.”

The City Attorney could still charge him with a misdemeanor.

MLB will conduct an investigation as to what happened and could suspend Urías if he violated the league’s domestic abuse policy. He was suspended for 20 games in 2019 for violating the policy after being arrested, but not charged, on suspicion of domestic battery that year.

Urías is currently a free agent.

Read more in Jack Harris’ story here.

In case you missed it

Former Dodgers pitcher Julio Urías won’t face felony charge

Shohei Ohtani could avoid paying tens of millions in California taxes. Not so fast, state says

All-star outfielder Teoscar Hernández agrees to a one-year deal with Dodgers

Asian Americans go bonkers over Ohtani for his superhuman baseball prowess — and for shattering stereotypes

And finally

Leo Durocher appears on “The Beverly Hillbillies.” Watch and listen here.