Kiké Hernández bemoans ‘shameful’ free-agent market, but is grateful for return to Dodgers
Kiké Hernández did a lot of waiting this winter.
Waiting not only on the Dodgers, but most other teams around Major League Baseball as well.
Like many veteran players in what has become a slow free-agent market — the Dodgers’ $1-billion spending spree on Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto and others aside — Hernández received few formal offers this offseason.
He hoped the Dodgers would try to re-sign him. But by the time spring camps opened last month, he was ready to sign somewhere else in order to start preparing for the season.
“It’s been terrible,” Hernández said of the market, which still includes several unsigned stars like Blake Snell, Matt Chapman and Jordan Montgomery, in addition to many other established big-league players.
“The fact that they’re still out there,” Hernández added, “it’s a shame.”
The reason Hernández is no longer one of those unsigned players, after striking a one-year, $4-million deal to return to the Dodgers this week, might be partly because of a strategically timed call to Dodgers president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman.
After getting only one formal offer all winter, from an unnamed team that he turned down, Hernández decided he had waited long enough.
So, before pursuing other interested clubs — he said there were “a lot of teams in the mix,” the New York Yankees chief among them — the longtime Dodgers fan favorite called Friedman last week with something of an ultimatum.
“I talked to Andrew and I was like, ‘Hey, if we can’t make something happen in the next couple of days, I’m gonna have to turn the page and go somewhere else because I need to do what’s best for me and my family,’” Hernández recounted Thursday, in his first meeting with reporters since his deal became official. “I felt like opportunities were starting to go away by waiting too long.”
Lo and behold, on Monday, the Dodgers responded.
First, they traded backup outfielder Manuel Margot to the Minnesota Twins, clearing a spot from what had been a full roster. Then, within an hour, they came to terms on a deal with Hernández, bringing the 32-year-old back to the Southland for his eighth season with the team.
