by Mark Langill
The free spirit of his team’s clubhouse and perpetual-motion catalyst was on his best behavior in a different setting at Dodger Stadium in the homestretch of the 2025 regular season.
On a Thursday afternoon, in front of a group of roughly 125 fans attending a Stadium Club luncheon, Kiké Hernández sat peacefully on stage for 45 minutes while reflecting on his 12-year career, including his two different tenures with the Dodgers.
At one point, the program moderator displayed a box containing the latest Hernández bobblehead and read aloud the “Mr. Clutch-tober” headline, a reference to his numerous postseason heroics.
The guest of honor, at home in torn blue jeans and a black T-shirt emblazoned with the Catwoman character from actress Michelle Pfeiffer, was asked about his confidence.
“Would 7-year-old Kiké Hernández, growing up in Puerto Rico, believe one day there would be a bobblehead with his likeness and a city like Los Angeles would know him by his first name?”
Hernández’s poker face lasted only a few seconds. Then a slight grin preceded the truth he couldn’t hide. On the witness stand, the 34-year-old made the admission under his breath.
“Yeah …100 percent.”
When the Dodgers clinched their 13th consecutive playoff appearance last Thursday in Arizona, it was Hernández who fielded the final grounder at third base and threw a strike to first baseman Freddie Freeman.
The 2025 Wild Card Series is Hernández’s 10th trip to the postseason and his ninth with the Dodgers. His other playoff appearance was with the 2021 Boston Red Sox.
His 76 postseason games rank third on the Dodgers’ all-time list behind Justin Turner (86) and Chris Taylor (75).
Overall, Hernández has slashed .283/.356/.524/.880 in 87 postseason games with 15 home runs and 35 RBI.
In 2016, he hit three home runs in the Dodgers’ pennant-clinching 11–1 victory at Chicago’s Wrigley Field in Game 4 of the NL Championship Series.
In 2020, Hernández became the first player in Major League history to hit either a game-tying or go-ahead home run as a pinch-hitter in a postseason Game 7 in the NLCS against the Braves.
In the decisive Game 5 of the 2024 NL Division Series against the Padres, Hernández opened the scoring with a home run off Padres starter Yu Darvish in the second inning. The Dodgers won, 2–0, and advanced to the NL Championship Series against the Mets.
In Tuesday night’s Game 1 of the Wild Card Series, Hernández went 2-for-3.
The secret to his success?
Embrace the inevitable heartaches.
While Hernández loves to celebrate the big moments — including his shirtless ride atop the team bus rolling through the streets of Los Angeles during the team’s World Series parade on Nov. 1 — the 5-foot-10, 195-pound “Mighty Kiké” isn’t afraid to strike out.
“When you play a lot of playoff games, you’re going to have chances to succeed and come through for your team,” Hernández says. “But along the way, you’re also going to fail a lot.”
Originally, there was no fanfare when the Dodgers acquired Hernández in a six-player trade with the Miami Marlins on Dec. 11, 2014.
In his first Major League season with the Marlins and Houston Astros in 2014, Hernández slashed .248/.321/.421/.742 in 42 games with three home runs and 14 RBI.
But the Dodgers noticed Hernández played second base, third base and all three outfield positions.
Hernández looked at the potential 2015 Dodger roster and wondered about his role.
“I was hoping I’d be traded again because looking at the Dodger roster at the time, I thought I was going to make a career out of Triple-A baseball,” Hernández says. “(President of Baseball Operations) Andrew Friedman got on the phone with me and said their plans were real with me. They were looking for players like me as far as playing different positions. And I was saying to myself, ‘Alright, sure. I’ll believe it when I see it.’
“A decade later, here we are.”
In his 2015 debut season with the Dodgers, Hernández slashed .397/.346/.490/.836 in 76 games with seven home runs and 22 RBI while playing six different positions, including shortstop.
He also brought his personality into the clubhouse.
As a Minor League player in Houston’s organization, one of his managers was fired during the season. His replacement assumed Hernández didn’t speak English. For the next two months, Hernández spoke Spanish exclusively to the delight of his teammates. When the manager called a clubhouse meeting, Hernández shyly raised his hand to ask a question. When called upon, he announced, “I just wanted to let you know I’ve been punking you.”
One of his early routines with the Dodgers was wearing a full-length banana costume, which takes guts when not among the National League batting leaders.
At the time, when Hernández’s statistics were modest, Dodger broadcaster Orel Hershiser saw something special. Hershiser was a member of the Dodgers’ 1988 championship team who also played in two World Series with Cleveland.
Hershiser said, “If I were building a team, I would want 25 players like Kiké Hernández,” citing the intangibles a selfless role player means to a team’s chemistry.
When his chances arrived, Hernandez wasn’t overwhelmed or surprised by his success. Nobody told him a role player can’t become a cult hero.
“‘I’ve been dreaming about this my entire life,” Hernández says. “It wasn’t just playing in the big leagues. I’ve always dreamed of playing in the World Series, playing in October.”
He has now played in four in his career — 2017, 2018, 2020 and 2024.
In 2025, Hernández was sidelined in mid-July with inflammation in his left elbow. He underwent four injections, and there was a fear he might miss the rest of the season. Eventually, Hernandez was pain-free.
“It was a very frustrating season,” he says. “The injury happened in late May, and I tried to push through it. I got to the point where I couldn’t even hold the bat anymore.
“As far as taking my time and being a good patient, it wasn’t hard because there wasn’t much that I could do.”
With October here, Hernández is ready for anything. The biggest challenge might be getting a good night’s sleep with potential history in the on-deck circle.
“It’s hard to explain the feeling of October baseball,” he says. “From the moment you wake up in the morning and open your eyes, you have adrenaline, and your heart starts beating really fast. And you’re still lying in bed. Those are the things that wake me up.
“I love playing with adrenaline, I’m like an adrenaline junkie. And you know, the energy of the stadium in October is nothing that compares to anything in the 162-game season.”
2025 Postseason: Kiké Hernández is ready for another Octoberfest was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.