Editor’s Note: This story is from the pages of Dodger Insider magazine, 2024 Volume 7. Magazines are available at entry at parking stands at Dodger Stadium.
by Cary Osborne
The hot lights don’t burn. The crowd isn’t seen or heard. It’s one on one.
There may be runners on base and 50,000 people in the seats, but Teoscar Hernández simplifies the situation.
“I try to not think about anything else,” Hernández says. “It’s just the pitcher and me in those situations, and I try not to get anxious to swing out of the strike zone. Get a good pitch and put it in play.”
The drama was meant to happen for the veteran outfielder. The Dodgers were busy stacking the deck in the offseason. They signed Shohei Ohtani on Dec. 11, meaning there would be three MVPs at the top of the lineup with Mookie Betts, Ohtani and Freddie Freeman, followed in some order by former All-Stars Will Smith and Max Muncy.
When they signed Hernández on Jan. 12 it meant that they would have one of the most powerful run-producing outfielders to be the bridge from the top of the lineup to the bottom. It would also create moments for the 31-year-old to deliver.
Hernández has the fourth-most plate appearance with runners in scoring position in the Majors, and he leads all National League outfielders in RBI (67) while achieving his sixth-career 20-homer season.
“Just looking back at his first half, he’s putting a lot of quality at-bats together,” Ohtani says. “He’s been put in a lot of situations where there’s runners on base, and it really shows his ability to be able to drive in runs.”
This is what the nine-year Major League veteran hungered for when the Dodgers signed him. Delivering in the big moments led him to his second career All-Star selection.
Now he hungers for moments like these in October.
Hernández says he got a taste of the postseason on June 7–9 when the Dodgers played at Yankee Stadium against the New York Yankees.
The three nationally televised games were touted as a potential World Series matchup with two old October rivals both leading their respective divisions.
By the end of the series, the national audience was reintroduced to the thunder of Teoscar. He went 6-for-12 in the series with three home runs and nine RBI.
His two-run double in the 11th inning of Game 1 of the series was the winning hit in the Dodgers’ 2–1 victory. The next night, he hit two home runs — including a back-breaking grand slam in the top of the eighth inning of an 11–3 Dodger win. He followed that with a solo home run in the sixth inning of Game 3 to break a 2–2 tie.
“If the postseason is going to be close to that, I’m all in,” Hernández says.
That series and his first half overall showcased what Hernández has long known about himself — that he has been one of the most impactful power hitters in the game year after year.
“Honestly, I don’t think I have the credit that I’ve deserved from the last couple of years,” Hernández says. “But that’s another thing. I try not to think about it and just keep going, doing my thing — helping the team and doing my job. At the end of the day, that’s the thing that I want to do.”
Hernández became an everyday player with the Blue Jays in 2018 at age 25. It was his eighth professional season.
From 2018–2023, he was an .801 OPS hitter with 147 home runs and 148 doubles. Fourteen Major Leaguers in that span had at least 147 homers and 148 doubles, including Betts and Freeman. Hernández won two Silver Slugger Awards (2020, 2021) and was an All-Star with the Blue Jays in 2021, a season where he hit 32 home runs and drove in 116 runs and became a fan favorite.
But Toronto traded him to Seattle in the 2022 offseason to add pitching depth.
Hernández’s OPS (.741) in 2023 with the Mariners was its lowest point since he became an everyday player in 2018 — now clearly a result of hitting in one of Major League Baseball’s most hitter-punishing parks, Seattle’s T-Mobile Park. He had a .643 OPS at home compared to .830 on the road.
The Mariners didn’t extend Hernández a qualifying offer after the season to try to keep him, making him now one of the most attractive outfielders on the free-agent market.
The Dodgers believed, as did Hernández, that his 2023 numbers were not him. The mutual belief created a path to LA, and he signed a one-year deal. It brought the 31-year-old to a place where he had zero familiarity.
“I’m not a guy who is afraid to look for new things,” Hernández says. “Coming in here, I knew the challenge — the city, big team, big organization — but I never put a doubt on myself. I work really hard, and I know if I stay healthy and I’ll be able to play every day, I’m going to do good.”
One thing Hernández didn’t want to change was that swing. It would be understandable for a player to tinker after a challenging season. But Hernández’s quiet mechanics in the batter’s box and easy swing have worked. So why make that change?
“I just want to be under control, to be able to control my body the way I want to control it and to do the things that I know will work,” Hernández says about his swing. “I try to be calm, try to be patient, stay focused, and just control my emotions. I think that’s the key — when you control emotions, you can control your body, and your body works all together. And that I think is why I create a lot of power when I hit the ball.”
That explains the success in big situations.
Hernández hit four home runs in his first homestand at Dodger Stadium from March 28-April 3. On May 8, he drove in all three runs in a Dodger 3–0 victory. Three days later, he homered and drove in four runs in a 5–0 Dodger win against San Diego. Later, he had his moments in New York.
Two weeks before the All-Star Game at Dodger Stadium, he made another statement — three hits, three RBI and a walk-off single in a 6–5 Dodger win. Then he became the first Dodger to win an All-Star Game Home Run Derby on July 15.
Hernández has 21 home runs, 67 RBI and an .821 OPS. His 131 OPS+ is his highest since 2021.
“He plays every day, he’s a force us in the lineup, drives in runs, Silver Slugger, All-Star,” Freeman says. “He posts every single day. That’s huge. And I can’t say enough about what he’s meant to our team.”
The Dodgers lost two of those powerful forces to injury in the first half — Muncy to an oblique injury in mid-May and Betts with a fractured hand in mid-June. It made the acquisition of Hernández and what he has done that much more important for the 2024 Dodgers. Hernández started the first 79 games of the season, missing his first two after his grandfather passed away. He has appeared in 99 of the Dodgers’ 101 games.
“Obviously given that we’ve lost a couple of middle-of-the-order guys, for Teoscar to come pick up the slack and drive runs in and be able to post and be able to bounce from right field to left field, he’s having a heck of a year,” says manager Dave Roberts.
And he’s having a heck of a time.
“It’s been great (in LA),” Hernández says. “Obviously, it’s a business at the end of the day. The team is going to do what they feel is best for them. But for me and my family, I would like to stay here for the rest of my career and just finish my career as an LA Dodger.”
From Dodger Insider magazine: Teo’s Thunder was originally published in Dodger Insider on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.