Sources: Hernández, Dodgers agree to $66M deal
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Jeff Passan, Senior MLB Insider
Outfielder Teoscar Hernández and the Los Angeles Dodgers are in agreement on a three-year, $66 million contract, sources told ESPN on Friday, reuniting the World Series standout with the team he helped capture a championship.
“I’m Back,” Hernández wrote on his Instagram story.
Almost immediately in the aftermath of the World Series victory, Hernández declared his desire to return to the Dodgers after a one-year engagement proved successful for both parties. Coming together on a new, mutually agreeable contract took almost two months, with the Dodgers signing outfielder Michael Conforto and engaging in trade discussions for outfielders while Hernández considered other offers.
Eventually, the sides struck a deal that includes a club option of $15 million for the 2028 season with a $6.5 million buyout, $23.5 million in deferred money and a $23 million signing bonus.
Hernández, 32, signed with the Dodgers for one year and $23.5 million — with $8.5 million of it deferred — after the free agent market valued him too low to sign long term. He made the risk count, hitting .272/.339/.501 with a career-high 33 home runs and 99 RBIs. His two-run double in the championship-winning Game 5 of the World Series capped the New York Yankees‘ nightmare inning, and a Game 2 home run off Carlos Rodon staked Los Angeles to a lead it wouldn’t yield.
Beyond the returns from injury expected among their pitchers, the Dodgers have spent the winter adding. First came Blake Snell, a two-time National League Cy Young winner, for five years and $182 million. They brought back Blake Treinen, another Game 5 hero, for two years and $22 million. And Conforto hopes to follow Hernández’s example by going to the most successful franchise in the game on a one-year deal and thriving the way so many do.
Before coming to Los Angeles, Hernández was one of the more consistent outfielders in baseball after not getting full-time at-bats until his age-25 season. Among the 125 hitters with at least 2,500 plate appearances since 2018, Hernández ranks 17th in home runs, 21st in RBIs and 40th in OPS+.
He adds another big bat to a lineup filled with them and another body to an outfield mix that includes Conforto, Andy Pages, Chris Taylor, James Outman and Tommy Edman, who can play center field and shortstop, where former outfielder and MVP Mookie Betts is expected to play every day next season.
Los Angeles continued its use of deferrals, in which portions of salaries are paid years down the road. Though the majority of Los Angeles’ $1 billion-plus of deferred money belongs to Shohei Ohtani — $680 million of his $700 million contract is deferred a decade down the road, leaving Los Angeles to pay around $46 million per year into an escrow account to cover it — others with deferrals in their deals include Betts, Snell, Edman, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith.
Players often use deferred money, as well as signing bonuses, to lessen their tax burden, particularly in California, where one legislator introduced a bill to close what he called “an obscure tax loophole.” Hernández’s deferrals aren’t as delayed as Ohtani’s, starting in six years rather than a decade.
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