Could Teoscar Hernandez be returning to the American League East?
The mere prospect of it has to be a concern for the Blue Jays front office, which jettisoned the now-World Series champion out of town following the 2022 season.
The Toronto offence, meanwhile, has never been the same.
Reports out of the MLB general manager’s meetings, which wrapped up in San Antonio on Thursday, have noted that Hernandez has attracted interest from both the Boston Red Sox and Baltimore Orioles.
Like anything in high rumour season, the news has to be greeted with caution, but it is noteworthy that the Red Sox pondered Hernandez last winter and Orioles GM Mike Elias has indicated he has money to spend to take his team over the top.
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Add to the fact that the New York Yankees remain the frontrunner to bring Juan Soto back to the Bronx and bash alongside teammate Aaron Judge, and suddenly the Jays could be off-season losers before the first meaningful transaction even takes place.
With Hernandez, a return to the largely hitter-friendly ballparks of the American League East could continue the haunting of a Blue Jays fan base that is going on two years now.
When the Jays traded the powerful fan favourite to the Seattle Mariners on Nov. 16, 2022, it was not only a rare early off-season move for the Toronto front office, but more noteworthy a signal from general manager Ross Atkins as to where the team was headed.
Sacrifice some of that prodigious offence and shore up the defence was the directive and the team hasn’t been anywhere near the dynamic offensive squad it was in 2021 and 2022.
An attack that lagged in the 2023 regular season and had nothing in that horrendous two-game playoff sweep to the Minnesota Twins, followed up with a 2024 campaign that had historic lows in homers and run production.
Meanwhile, on the West Coast, Hernandez went raking at his most recent MLB stop. He had a career-high 33 runs and was an important bat in the heart of an order that led all of MLB in regular-season wins before triumphing over the Yankees in the World Series.
After the Mariners let Hernandez get to free agency, the 32-year-old signed a one-year deal worth $23.5 million US. It was a savvy transaction for both the Dodgers and Hernandez, who clearly won the big bet he made on himself. He’s not in the Soto stratosphere of this year’s free-agent class, but stands to cash in big on a multi-year deal.
The Jays, on the other hand, still are waiting for the fruits of their return in the Teo trade to become consistent performers at the big league level.
Reliever Erik Swanson struggled through 2024, a season that was upended before it even started after dealing with the frightening car accident that injured his young son Toby during spring training.
Another pitcher, Adam Macko, remains in the Jays farm system, but still is believed to be a legitimate prospect.
The shifting of the Jays philosophy began then and a lineup that scored 775 runs with Hernandez contributing in 2022, dropped to 746 in 2023 before the plunge all the way down to 671 in the last-place season that followed.
Just as he helped create a formidable top of the order with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts and Freddie Freeman in L.A., Hernandez was a regular producer and perennial threat alongside Vlad Guerrero Jr., Bo Bichette and George Springer (back when he was still producing) in Toronto.
The words of the GM at the time will haunt him until there is some sort of meaningful uptick in success in results.
“We got to the point where we felt like the acquisitions on the run prevention side would help us,” Atkins said of the Hernandez deal at the time. “Thinking about where we had depth, there was an opportunity to move. It does create some flexibility for us as well in terms of resources.”
In fairness to Atkins, another factor in the trade was that Hernandez was a year away from free agency and it was clear the Jays didn’t want any part of a long-term deal with him. The popular outfielder was headed to arbitration and a $14-million US contract.
But the glaring hole created by his absence certainly seems to exacerbate the feeling of doom attached to the defence-first mantra. Through the undefeated lens of hindsight, two years in that trade has been a colossal bust. A once-dynamic offence has gone benign and the results have dipped accordingly.
And now the prospect of Soto continuing Bronx Bombing ways and Hernandez returning to a division where he has flourished for either the Orioles or the Red Sox is a gloomy one for the Jays, who could lose the off-season before even making a move.