Teoscar Hernandez : Trade | Home runs | Contract

The first blockbuster trade of the offseason has been made, and perhaps fittingly, Teoscar Hernandez is involved. Check it out here.

Teoscar Hernandez : Trade | Home runs | Contract

Teoscar José Hernández is a Dominican professional baseball outfielder for the Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball (MLB).

He previously played for the Houston Astros and Toronto Blue Jays. Hernández was an All-Star in 2021 and has won two Silver Slugger Awards.

On March 22, 2022, Hernández signed a $10.65 million contract with the Blue Jays, avoiding salary arbitration.

After the 2022 season, the Blue Jays traded Hernández to the Seattle Mariners for Erik Swanson and Adam Macko.

Teoscar Hernandez trade

Hernandez, aka “Mr Seeds” has been one of the longest tenured Blue Jays since the team received him in a trade for Francisco Liriano in 2017.

With the Jays, he became an All Star and a silver slugger.

The Mariners’ president of baseball operations and general manager Justin Hollander finalized a deal with the Blue Jays for All-Star outfielder and two-time Silver Slugger Award winner Teoscar Hernández.

In return, Seattle sent leverage reliever Erik Swanson and left-handed pitching prospect Adam Macko to Toronto.

Both teams announced the deal early Wednesday morning.

“For me, it feels like it’s a new chapter for myself,” Hernández said. “And I think I’m going to enjoy it the best that I can. I’m going to give everything that I’ve got to the Seattle Mariners.”

Hernández provides an immediate power upgrade to a lineup that needed it last year, even with a 90-win season that culminated in a playoff berth.

He’ll also fill the corner outfield spot that Dipoto was publicly attempting to address after opting not to extend Mitch Haniger a $19.65 million qualifying offer.

Teoscar Hernandez home runs 

On paper, this deal doesn’t look so hot for the Blue Jays. Despite a “down” year for the 30-year-old outfielder, Hernandez hit .267/.316/.491 with 25 home runs in 131 games for the Blue Jays this past season. Not his best campaign, but certainly still a productive one.

But with only one year of team control remaining and a salary likely to move past the $14 million mark in 2023, the Blue Jays deemed him expendable, and now they suddenly have an opening for a starting outfielder.

https://youtu.be/RAql1_xPxAg

The Blue Jays gave up a big bat, but the greater need on their roster right now lies in the bullpen. Toronto receives reliever Erik Swanson and pitching prospect Adam Macko from the Seattle Mariners.

Swanson’s Baseball Savant page features some eye-popping metrics, most impressively the fact that he struck out 34% of the batters he faced during the 2022 season. He was part of a murderer’s row of bullpen arms that gave the Mariners one of the best relief cores in MLB.

In most cases, it doesn’t bode well to trade a position player for a reliever, but in this instance, the Blue Jays could afford to move a hitter like Hernandez off their roster. More interesting than the trade itself is how it will trigger a domino effect of more transactions.

This opens a path for George Springer to shift over to right field full-time, which was inevitable. Because of the injuries he suffered the last two years, that time has come much sooner than most expected.

Contract 

The Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to a one-year, $10.65 million deal with outfielder Teoscar Hernandez to avoid arbitration, the team announced on Tuesday.

Hernandez appeared in 143 games last season for the Jays and posted a .296 average with 32 homers and 116 RBIs, all career highs.

The 29-year-old was selected to his first All-Star game and captured his second consecutive Silver Slugger Award.

Hernandez has spent parts of five seasons with the Blue Jays after they acquired him along with outfielder Nori Aoki from the Houston Astros on July 31, 2017 in a deal for pitcher Francisco Liriano.

In 520 MLB games, Hernandez has 108 homers and 303 RBIs with a .260 career batting average.