All Ball Sports: Teo’s back, good riddance D-Lo
by Paul Teetor
He’s baaaack!
The most wanted man in Los Angeles was finally caught by the Dodgers.
Teoscar Hernandez, the sunflower seed spitting, clutch hit slugging outfielder who played such a vital role in the Dodgers march to a World Series championship this past season, signed a three-year contract Friday night to return to the Dodgers as they wrapped up their holiday spending spree by locking up their all-important fourth big bat.
Everyone knows about Shohei Ohtani, who slugged 54 homers and stole 59 bases on his way to earning the National League MVP award. And even casual fans know about Mookie Betts and his clutch hitting and infield/outfield versatility.
And of course they know about Freddie Freeman, who had the most important hit in the Dodgers entire run through the playoffs: a titanic walk-off Grand Slam home run in game 1 of the World Series that broke the spirit of the New York Yankees and will live on in Dodger’s lore right next to Kirk Gibson’s historic walk-off home run in game 1 of the 1988 World Series.
But only Dodger nerds and hardcore stat geeks realized that Hernandez was just as important in his own way in his first year with the Dodgers after signing a one-year contract before last season. He hit .272 with 33 home runs and 99 runs batted in. And he delivered some of the most important hits of the Dodgers march through the post season, including a key home run in game five of the National League Division Series against the Padres and a score-tying double in the Dodgers comeback win in game five of the World Series.
Just as important, he was a perfect fit in the clubhouse and a fan favorite for his relentlessly positive demeanor and team-first approach.
The veteran outfielder had been seeking a four- or five-year deal last offseason, but instead settled for a one-year, $23 million contract. The idea behind that contract was that if Teo had a good year – and he had a great year – Hernandez would have the leverage to command a big, long-term deal even though he is 32 years old. Whether it be with the Dodgers or some other team that needed hitting, he would get the long-term deal he wanted.
Even before the season was over, he made it clear that he loved LA and wanted to return to the Dodgers. But first he had to wait out the team’s pursuit of Juan Soto, the premier free agent in this year’s crop of available players. At 26, Soto was a younger, better, and more productive version of Hernandez. If the Dodgers could somehow add him to their lineup, they would have the greatest Murderer’s row in history. And Hernandez would have to seek a long-term contract elsewhere.
But when the Mets and their owner Steve Cohen – a hedge-fund billionaire widely known as the richest owner in all of baseball – won the bidding war for Soto two weeks ago with a contract for 15 years and $765 million, all eyes in Dodger Nation turned to Hernandez to see if he and the Dodgers could work out a deal to keep him in town.
So they started waiting, and waiting, and waiting. While they were waiting, the Dodgers signed two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell, and that was great news for Dodgers fans.
But what about Teo?
Then they re-signed October hero Tommy Edman, the unlikely hitting star and MVP of the League Championship Series win over the New York Mets. That was good news too.
But what about Teo?
Even signing smart-swinging, left-handed outfielder Michael Conforto was cool.
But what about Teo?
Reliever Blake Treinen was brought back, and the Dodgers are considered favorites to sign Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasaki as soon as he’s eligible to sign with an MLB team next month.
But what about Teo?
Eventually the fans turned pessimistic, since taking so long usually meant that a bidding war — most likely between the Yankees, Dodgers and Red Sox, who also lost out on Soto – was underway.
Finally, after more than two weeks of anxious waiting, Dodger fans got their answer: He’s Baaaack!
In the end, Hernandez’s desire to remain in LA proved to be the difference, and the two sides finally agreed on a three-year, $66 million contract with a $15 million option for a fourth year, when Hernandez will be 36 years old and well past his prime.
Indeed, there are some Dodgers fans who fear that Hernandez had a career year this year and may never reach those heights again.
But that is a gamble that President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman was willing to take and Manager Dave Roberts too – he lobbied hard to bring back Hernandez.
So, in the end everyone was happy – most especially the fans!
Happy Holidays!
Good Riddance to D-Lo, Part 2
Back in June of 2015, the Lakers had the second pick in the NBA draft. After four years of watching Kobe Bryant play past his sell-by date while the team steadily sank in the standings, it was their first opportunity to draft a new superstar, a player they could build their next great team around.
Ooops.
They selected D’Angelo Russell, a 6-foot-5 freshman out of Ohio State. They said he was a great passer and an even greater scorer. They passed on Devin Booker, a future Hall of Famer who was taken by the Phoenix Suns nine picks later.
D-Lo was no savior, just another no-defense, pretty good offensive guard more interested in chucking up as many shots as he could while the Lakers just got worse and worse.
By 2019, the Lakers had seen enough to know that D-Lo was not the guy to lead their next great team. Indeed, he was a negative force on and off the court. So they traded him to Brooklyn and wrote it off as just another mistake in a series of player personnel mistakes.
From Brooklyn he went to the Golden State Warriors and then to the Minnesota Timberwolves. At each stop the dynamic with his new team was the same: this guy was drafted second overall in 2015, so he must be a super talent. He just needs the right fit with the right team — and that’s us.
But it never worked out because he remained the same player: soft, unathletic, a me-first guy who didn’t have the game to back it up.
Then, incredibly, General Manager Rob Pelinka and the Lakers acquired him again, this time from Minnesota at the 2023 trade deadline. His second time around, he was penciled in as the team’s “third star” behind LeBron and Anthony Davis.
From the day he hit town, All Ball sounded the alarm that a faker, a poser, a left-handed fraud was back playing for the Lakers and repeatedly called for him to be traded or cut outright.
Instead, the Lakers signed him to a two-year, $36 million deal while explaining that he had accepted the third banana role and everything would be fine. But this season, when new coach JJ Redick – an astute judge of hoops talent after playing 15 years in the NBA – moved him out of the starting lineup and installed him deep on the bench, he pouted, sulked and generally made life miserable for everyone around him.
Finally on Sunday the Lakers off-loaded him to Brooklyn – again! Apparently, Brooklyn is a toxic waste dump site for the Lakers.
What they got back – journeymen Dorian Finney-Smith and Shake Milton – was not as important as the addition by subtraction that was accomplished by getting him out of town.
Better late than never.
And if he somehow comes back for a third stint in the purple and gold, you’ll know Rob Pelinka has lost its mind – and his memory.
Contact: teetor.paul@gmail.com. ER