The World Series champion Dodgers finished second in the Majors last season and runs scored and first in OPS. A key piece of the Dodgers’ World Series-winning team, Teoscar Hernandez, is coming back for 2025. Hernandez reportedly agreed on a three-year deal to return to the Dodgers.
A Look at Hernandez
Amidst a sluggish free agent market last winter, many top-tier players had to take short-term deals. Teoscar Hernandez was one such name. The veteran outfielder took a one-year deal worth $23.5MM with deferred money. It was good money — but not a long-term deal.
Los Angeles had several left-handed hitting bats (Ohtani, Freeman, Muncy, Lux), so adding a RHH like Hernandez made sense. Needless to say, the addition of Hernandez worked out great for both sides.
Hernandez hit a career-high 33 home runs — fourth among all outfielders (min. 50% GP in OF) and drove in 99 for the Dodgers during the regular season. His big season helped the returning Dodger win a NL Silver Slugger and a World Series title.
The 32-year-old also played a key role for Los Angeles in the playoffs. He hit three home runs in October, one of which was the exclamation point in their NLDS victory over the Padres.
Teoscar got the chance to not to balance out a deep lineup but also play a critical role on a World Series-winning team. And before the MLB Postseason, Hernandez was the team’s best right-handed bat for parts of the summer when Mookie Betts went down with a hand fracture.
Between June 17-August 11 — when Betts was out — Hernandez hit .303/.356/.529 with nine home runs and 21 extra-base hits.
Hernandez is one of the best in terms of power and hard-hit contact in the league. From 2022-24, Hernandez finished 13th in the league in cumulative barreled-up balls (170) and fourth among regular outfielders. Only Aaron Judge (277), Yordan Alvarez (203), and Juan Soto (202) had more.
He has plus bat speed (73.3 MPH, 73rd percentile per Statcast) and a good eye to target pitches in and out of the zone. The latter can sometimes work in his detriment, as Hernandez is a habitual chaser and posted a below-average Zone Contact% in every full season he’s played in.
Per reports, the Dodgers re-signed Teoscar Hernandez to a three-year deal worth $66MM.
Analysis
Literally one day ago, I took a look at the best fits the top remaining free agents. I marked Hernandez, who fit in extremely well in Los Angeles, as a perfect fit to come back to Los Angeles.
Well, that happened (You can check out the rest via the link in the previous paragraph).
On paper, Dave Roberts can run out basically the same lineup as 2024, with some twists. In Game 5 of the 2024 World Series, the top five of that lineup — Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Teoscar, and Max Muncy — are all back for 2025. That lineup had a L-R-L-R-L mix, what managers and teams want nowadays with the three-batter minimum.
One could theorize that Will Smith and newcomer Michael Conforto can slot in right behind those names to create arguably a stronger lineup than last season.
With the addition of Michael Conforto, the Dodgers now have seven hitters who’ve hit at least 25 home runs in a season: Conforto, Hernandez, Ohtani, Betts, Freeman, Max Muncy, and Will Smith.
Hernandez re-signing with the Dodgers locks in this core for the forseeable future. Between this move, re-signing Tommy Edman a few weeks earlier, and the pickup of Blake Snell, the Dodgers have all their big names locked up through at least the end of 2027. That year is when Freddie Freeman can test the market once more.
Los Angeles has a win-now core — obviously — as all their top stars, aside from Yoshinobu Yamamoto — are in the 30-35 age group. Hernandez, 32, is part of that group.
For more on recent free agency signings, Gleyber Torres signed with the Tigers on December 27.