Free-agent infielder/outfielder Enrique Hernández underwent double hernia surgery on Oct. 24, reports Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. The utility player is expected to resume baseball activities in three to four weeks, which should allow him to have a fairly normal offseason and spring training.
It’s unknown exactly when this issue cropped up, but it’s possible it has been bothering him for a while. Jen McCaffrey of The Athletic relayed that Hernandez had surgery on a hematoma in his psoas muscle last year. He made multiple trips to the injured list in 2022 with what was called a right hip flexor strain, but McCaffrey’s reporting from September 2022 states that the issue “turned into an abdominal strain created by a hematoma in the psoas muscle, located between the lower part of his spine and his upper thigh. Hernández had blood drained through a needle in his spine and received a PRP shot around the All-Star break to accelerate the healing.”
Hernandez, now 32, hit .237/.312/.432 for the Dodgers over 463 games from 2017 to 2020. That amounted to a wRC+ of 98, indicating he was just 2% below league average in that time, as he served as a versatile player that could be plugged into many places. He played every position except catcher in that stretch, even making an appearance on the mound.
He was able to parlay those results into a two-year, $14M deal with the Red Sox going into 2021. He first season of the deal went very well, with Hernandez getting his batting line up to .250/.337/.449 and his wRC+ to 109. Unfortunately, he dipped to a line of .222/.291/.338 and a 74 wRC+ in 2022 as the aforementioned IL stints limited him to 93 games.
Nonetheless, the Sox believed in him enough to give him a one-year extension as that season was winding down, giving him $10M to stick around for 2023. That didn’t really work out, with Hernandez hitting .222/.279/.320 for a 59 wRC+ with the Red Sox. He was flipped to the Dodgers at the deadline and had a respectable finish, slashing .262/.308/.423 for a 96 wRC+, but the combined line between the two clubs resulted in a wRC+ of 72 for the year.
If the surgery puts Hernandez in position to have better results going forward, that could be a noteworthy development for the free-agent market. There’s a general dearth of impact position players, particularly in the middle infield. Hernandez was set to be one of the most accomplished players available in that category, alongside options like Amed Rosario, Whit Merrifield and Adam Frazier. If his two most recent seasons were dragged down by health issues, that will make his status in the months to come a development worth monitoring.
More must-reads: