Andrew Friedman: ‘The door will never be closed on Kiké’

Dodgers fans chanted for the free agent utility player. Plus more news and injury updates from Saturday’s fan fest at Dodger Stadium.

The Dodgers held their annual fan fest on Saturday at Dodger Stadium, confined to the parking lot while construction continues inside the 63-year-old ballpark.

With several new Dodgers added to the returning players from a championship team, the vibes were strong during the allotted interview sessions in front of fans. Manager Dave Roberts during his interview talked about getting so many names off his offseason wishlist. But several fans chanted, “Kiké” for Kiké Hernández, a key part of the title run who is still a free agent.

Those chants continued when president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes were on stage with folks from SportsNet LA.

“The door will never be closed on Kíké,” Friedman said. “Whatever the best decision is for Kiké and his wife, his family, they’ll figure it out. I’m biased, and hopefully it’s with us, but they’ve put themselves in a position to make a decision.”

This all came after a Friday report from Mark W. Sanchez of the New York Post that the Yankees inquired on Hernández, though even that news included this note from the author: “The most likely destination for Hernandez, though, is probably back in Los Angeles, and the Dodgers will have open roster spots when they are able to slide injured players to the 60-day injured list.”

The Dodgers only have 15 position players on the 40-man roster at the moment, lacking their usual available depth even if aggressively counting consensus top-30 prospect Dalton Rushing (who is not yet on the 40-man roster) as part of the group.

Notes

Roberts told reports on Saturday that Shohei Ohtani could join the rotation by May (which coincidentally would roughly match the schedule for Walker Buehler after his second Tommy John surgery as well), or possibly a little earlier. From Alden González at ESPN:

“I think the biggest determinant is going to be when I first pitch my bullpen,” Ohtani said through an interpreter. “Then I think we’re going to really get a feel for when I’ll be able to be on a big league mound.”

Ohtani also said Saturday he’s expecting to be ready to hit by opening day in Japan after his November left shoulder surgery.

Freddie Freeman just started swinging a bat on Thursday after his right ankle surgery, and might not see much game action early in spring training. but he told reporters he is expecting to be ready to play by the March 18 opener in Tokyo. From Doug Padilla at the Orange County Register had details on the November procedure:

While his ankle tendons and ligaments were able to heal on their own, Freeman had loose cartilage removed after it floated into the area of his Achilles tendon, while also shaving down bone spurs.

More Freeman from Sonja Chen at MLB.com:

“When they went in, they didn’t know if they were going to have to repair some of the ligaments, because I had torn some of my ligaments, as well, in my ankle,” Freeman said. “It was quite a nasty injury I had. Luckily, in those four weeks, the ligaments and tendons had healed enough where they didn’t have to fix my tendons and ligaments.”

Tyler Glasnow, who last pitched on August 11 after suffering a sprained elbow, “recovered early enough in the winter to have a normal offseason training program,” per Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times.

Miguel Rojas after his sports hernia surgery in November had an infection that sidelined him for an additional two weeks, but told reporters he is “pretty close to 100 percent” heading into spring training, per Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic.