Former Astros Slugger Joins Loaded Dodgers Lineup
If the Houston Astros were hoping for a reunion with Teoscar Hernandez, they can forget it.
The Los Angeles Dodgers and Hernandez agreed to a one-year, $23.5 million contract on Sunday. According to ESPN's Jeff Passan, $8.5 million of that money will be deferred from 2030-2039.
That type of contract structure shouldn't surprise baseball fans at this point. The Dodgers deferred most of Shohei Ohtani's $700 million megadeal earlier this offseason, allowing them to sign Japanese pitching star Yoshinobu Yamamoto and now Hernandez as well.
Hernandez, 31, started his MLB career with the Astros in 2016. He only played 42 games for Houston before being sent to the Toronto Blue Jays in a trade deadline swap for Francisco Liriano in 2017. Hernandez thus missed out on the Astros' World Series title later that fall.
He is still searching for his first ring after several productive seasons with the Blue Jays and Seattle Mariners. Hernandez quickly blossomed into one of the better hitters in the American League, averaging 24 home runs and an .801 OPS (118 OPS+) from 2018-2023. He was an All-Star in 2021 and earned back-to-back Silver Sluggers in 2020 and 2021.
The hard-hitting outfielder was regarded as one of the better bats on the free-agent market this winter. He'll join an absolutely loaded Dodgers lineup that already includes Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman, among others.
According to Passan, Hernandez turned down several multi-year offers to sign with Los Angeles. Considering that the star-studded Dodgers are early betting favorites to win the 2024 World Series, it's not hard to see why.
