The Hernandez Hustle: Dodgers and Blue Jays in Fierce Fight For Teoscar’s Signature

The Los Angeles Dodgers may have a penchant for catching everybody’s attention with their blockbuster moves, most recently signing Blake Snell to a five-year, $182 million deal, but it’s their lower-key moves that elevate them from great to World Series favorite. Heading into the 2024 offseason, the Dodgers bought low on outfielder Teoscar Hernandez, signing him to a one-year, $23.5 million deal, and it paid off big time.

Now coming off a strong 2024 season, Hernandez is looking to parlay that into a long-term contract to give him the financial security that he didn’t receive last year. And while Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic believes that the Dodgers are in the driver’s seat with regards to signing the 32-year-old outfielder, one of Hernandez’s former teams, the Toronto Blue Jays, could end up swooping in and snatching him away from the reigning World Series champion.

“If Hernandez somehow does not land back with the Dodgers, the Blue Jays might be his most logical destination,” Rosenthal wrote. “Re-signing him could be a major step toward the Jays retaining Vladimir Guerrero Jr., with whom Hernandez is very close.”

While the Dodgers can flex their financial might as well as anyone in the league, Rosenthal thinks that the way they conduct business in free agency could be their undoing when it comes to keeping Hernandez on the team. Rosenthal wrote that the Dodgers prefer to “hang around the backboard” to see if the “ball somehow falls into their hands”, which translates to them wanting to sign Hernandez to as preferrable a deal to them as they can.

Meanwhile, the Blue Jays are in need of a spark offensively after they finished 23rd in runs scored per game last season, and bringing in a familiar face in Hernandez could go a long way towards remedying their ailing offense.

Teoscar Hernandez’s incredible 2024 season with the Dodgers is about to make him a very rich man

Teoscar Hernandez has been a major source of power production ever since he broke through as an everyday player in 2018. But 2023 was a struggle for him, as his overall production at the plate dipped — paving the way for the Dodgers to sign him.

This was the best decision Hernandez and the Dodgers could have made; Hernandez was back to form last season, belting 33 home runs and driving in 99 runs while slashing .272/.339/.501, which was good for 3.5 WAR (per Fangraphs). And then in the playoffs, Hernandez played in all 16 of the Dodgers’ games while providing solid production at the plate. Now, he’s about to be a very rich man.