Dodgers' Potential Teoscar Hernandez Trade Has Hit a Snag

It's no secret that Teoscar Hernandez is the Los Angeles Dodgers' most obvious trade candidate this offseason.

Hernandez is coming off a down year offensively and is among the league's worst defensive outfielders. Moreover, he's 34 years old and on an expiring contract, owed around $17 million in 2027 with a $15 million club option for 2028.

For a Dodgers team looking to get younger offensively, Hernandez represents one of the rare movable players.

It may not be that simple, though.

The idea behind a Hernandez trade would be to make room in left field for top prospect Josue De Paula, who burst onto the scene in September as a replacement for the injured Shohei Ohtani at designated hitter.

De Paula hit .323 with a 1.081 OPS across 11 games. He had more walks (11) and RBIs (seven) than strikeouts (five).

However, De Paula was only a DH due to his struggles defensively, and was then sparingly used in the postseason when Ohtani returned.

The Dodgers would love to have De Paula's bat in the lineup every day in 2027. To do that, though, he'll need to drastically improve defensively.

The Dodgers are confident De Paula can become an above-average defender, and in a normal offseason, the 21-year-old would be on a fast track to doing just that.

However, Major League Baseball is set to have a lockout beginning Dec. 1 that will prohibit Dodgers coaches and team officials from having any contact with players on the 40-man roster.

Thus, De Paula will be on his own to improve his defense. The Dodgers won't know how he's doing until the lockout ends — and at this point, it's anyone's best guess about when that will be.

Because of that, the Dodgers may not be so quick to trade Hernandez, who is still a valuable middle-of-the-order bat. The last thing they'd want to do is trade Hernandez, only to show up for spring training with De Paula being nowhere near ready for an everyday defensive role.

The Athletic's Katie Woo revealed how that is impacting the team's offseason plans.

"The Dodgers rostered the oldest position-playing group in baseball last season, and they want to get younger. An obvious way to do that is to deal Teoscar Hernandez, whom the Dodgers shopped last winter, to clear a spot for De Paula," Woo wrote. "But because a pending lockout will prohibit clubs from contacting players on their 40-man roster, there will be no way for the organization to assess De Paula’s development throughout the offseason. Per a team source, that has given the Dodgers pause about whether they should trade Hernandez."

Woo added: "If De Paula isn’t ready, the Dodgers risk creating a major hole in their outfield. A platoon of Hernandez and De Paula is possible, but the Dodgers would likely prefer De Paula get consistent at-bats for his development."

The Dodgers will still be open to moving Hernandez. However, it's appears to be far from a sure thing heading into an unprecedented winter.

For what it's worth, Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes was asked about the team potentially trading from their MLB roster at this week's GM meetings and said, "As far as due diligence, we’ll always listen."

However, he added: “We feel really good about the core of this team, what our guys have done, and even looking forward coming in, knowing guys are hungry after the way things ended. ... So, as far as due diligence, sure. But actively looking to do anything, we feel really good about this group.”