The Los Angeles Dodgers are less than one month away from opening the 2024 season in South Korea, but continued adjusting their roster by trading Manuel Margot to the Minnesota Twins and re-signing Kiké Hernández to a one-year, $4 million contract.
Hernández returned to the Dodgers days removed from reportedly being down to a free agency decision between the San Diego Padres, Twins, San Francisco Giants and Los Angeles Angels.
The Angels were the team most often connected to Hernández throughout the offseason, but they reportedly had a sense his preference was to re-sign with the Dodgers. It required some movement but now the super utility man gets to join the team in Spring Training and fully recovered from double hernia surgery.
During an interview with David Vassegh of AM 57O L.A. Sports Radio, Hernández discussed his health and recovery from surgery, and getting back to feeling like himself:
“I had surgery in October, so I feel like signing late was a little bit of a blessing in disguise. I’ve been ready to go for a long time now, but one of the things that I wasn’t allowed to the last couple offseasons because I wasn’t feeling great, had this injury going on and I didn’t know it required surgery but I was feeling the effects of it, i couldn’t lift as heavy as I used to. So it was different to get ready for the season.
“Half of my offseason was rehabbing and I couldn’t really work out. Once I got that green light to start working out, and how good I felt, I could lift heavy and things like that, the last three weeks or so I’ve been trying to get stronger now that I have a little more time. The workouts and baseball activities kind of had a little more intensity because I needed to do whatever it took to pretend I was already in camp.”
Hernández further elaborated on how long he played through the injured hernias and expressed excitement to not only be back with the Dodgers but also being healthy:
“I’ve actually been dealing with it for the last two full seasons. It was something that happened kind of toward the end of 2021. I was able to get by because it was the beginning of it. Tried to play through it in ’22, and missed two months because of it. Came back, tried to rehab all offseason but kind of felt weird. It’s an injury that it’s hard to even tell that you have it when you get an MRI and things like that.
“I had like, four or five MRIs, and it wasn’t until I flew out to Philly to see a specialist — Dr. Myers — and it confirmed I had injuries on both sides of my body; not just my right side but my left side too. That explained a lot of why the body didn’t want to do what the mind was telling it to the last couple seasons. I’m looking to start fresh again, fresh start back in L.A., I’m excited about everything.”
While playing for the Dodgers from 2015-2020, Hernández hit .240/.312/.425 with 88 doubles, 68 home runs and 213 RBI in 648 games.
The Dodgers reunited with Hernández at the trade deadline last season amid their search for a right-handed hitting position player who could help them improve against left-handed pitching. Hernández was in the midst of another down season with the Boston Red Sox and although he bounced back with L.A., that included having reverse splits.
Kiké Hernández embracing Dodgers role
Once an everyday player, which was a role that prompted Hernández to leave the Dodgers in free agency after the 2020 World Series, he has welcomed effectively being relegated to filling a platoon at multiple positions.
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