Blue Jays' Teoscar Hernández trade looks worse by the day
Deep into the MLB postseason, the Toronto Blue Jays once again find themselves sitting on the sidelines.
It’s been eight years since Toronto played this deep into October, with just four teams left in the MLB playoffs.
And while 2023 saw Blue Jays fans looking on longingly as Lourdes Gurriel Jr. and Gabriel Moreno made it all the way to the World Series with the Arizona Diamondbacks, 2024 has brought a new former player deep into the playoffs.
Teoscar Hernández, who spent six seasons with the Jays from 2017 through 2022, heads into tonight’s Game 3 of the NLCS with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who he signed with this offseason on a one-year deal. He’s hit two huge home runs thus far during the playoffs (including a grand slam in last week’s Game 3 of the NLDS against the San Diego Padres) and has left Jays fans wondering what might have been.
Prior to his time in LA, Hernández was a beloved member of the Blue Jays. In December 2022, a shocking trade sent him to Seattle in exchange for relievers Erik Swanson and Adam Macko.
And nearly two years after the trade, losing Hernández is just one of many things haunting a fanbase looking for its first playoff victory since 2016.
Would Hernández have ever come back to Toronto?
Oddly, Seattle kept Hernández for just one year, as Hernández hit free agency this past offseason.
“He was coming off a down year while playing in a very pitcher-friendly environment,” Hernández’s agent explained in a thread on X this week. “I asked him what his priority was, and he said he wanted to win and play deep into October, so we pivoted [from looking for a long-term deal] and focused on getting the best short-term deal on the best team interested.”
While Hernández had a rough go in his first year in Seattle, the same couldn’t be said of his time in LA.
Hernández had a .272 batting average with 160 hits, 33 home runs, 99 RBIs, and 84 runs scored in 154 games this season for the Dodgers.
In a weird twist of fate, the Mariners also missed out on the postseason like Toronto, falling just one game short of the final wild-card spot.
And while he was shipped out of town sooner than he expected, Hernández himself seemed to love his time in Toronto.
“The fans in Canada, the people in Canada, they know part of my heart is there,” Hernández said last week to Sportsnet’s Hazel Mae. “I was there for six years, my family was there, my family loved it, my wife loved Canada, loved the fans and everybody over there. I miss you guys. You guys are always going to be a part of my heart. God bless you guys, and thank you for all the support you’ve given me throughout my career.”
And so even though Toronto may have goofed on trading Hernández away, it seems like they might’ve messed up extra hard in not trying to acquire him once again this past offseason.
How would Hernández have looked on the Blue Jays?
From a pure power standpoint, the Jays could’ve used Hernández’s bat. While he had a resurgent season, Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit a team-high 30 home runs, with no other player topping 20 (George Springer had 19).
As per Baseball Reference, his 4.3 WAR would’ve been third on the Jays, behind only Guerrero and outfielder Daulton Varsho.
Swanson hasn’t quite been as successful relative to his position.
He went 2-2 this past year with a 5.03 ERA, striking out 37 batters in 39.1 innings pitched across 45 games. To his credit, his debut season in Toronto went much better, putting up a 2.97 ERA with 75 strikeouts across 66.2 innings, where he was fifth in the American League with a 3.3 WPA (Win Probability Added) among pitchers.
Macko, meanwhile, has not touched the Blue Jays’ major league roster since the trade.
Though hindsight is 20/20, if you were to put a lie detector on the Jays’ front office, it’d be hard to imagine that, given the chance, they’d say no to a do-over on the trade today.
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