Teoscar Hernandez still looks like the Dodgers’ most obvious offseason trade chip, but the path to moving him has gotten a lot messier.
On paper, the case for dealing Hernandez is easy to see. He’s coming off a down offensive season, he grades out as one of the league’s worst defensive outfielders, and he’s 34 with an expiring contract.
He’s owed around $17 million in 2027 and has a $15 million club option for 2028. For a Dodgers club trying to get younger at the plate, he stands out as one of the few players who could realistically be moved.
The bigger picture behind a Hernandez trade is even clearer: the Dodgers want to open a lane for Josue De Paula. The top prospect flashed in September after stepping in for the injured Shohei Ohtani at designated hitter, hitting .323 with a 1.081 OPS in 11 games. He also posted more walks, 11, and RBIs, seven, than strikeouts, five.
But there’s a catch. De Paula was limited to DH work because of his defensive issues, and once Ohtani returned, his postseason usage was minimal. The Dodgers like the bat enough to imagine him in the lineup every day in 2027, but that only works if his glove catches up.
That’s where the winter gets complicated. Major League Baseball is headed toward a lockout beginning Dec. 1, and that would prevent Dodgers coaches and team officials from having any contact with players on the 40-man roster. In other words, De Paula’s defensive progress would be on his own, and the team wouldn’t be able to monitor it until the lockout ends - whenever that ends.
That uncertainty has reportedly slowed the Dodgers down. The Athletic’s Katie Woo wrote that the club’s desire to get younger is real, but so is the risk of making the wrong move too early.
“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 also noted the roster squeeze the Dodgers could face if De Paula isn’t ready.
“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.”
So Hernandez remains in play, but this is no longer a clean or obvious decision. The Dodgers are still open to moving him, yet the lockout has turned what looked like a straightforward offseason pivot into a far less certain one.
At the GM meetings this week, Dodgers general manager Brandon Gomes was asked about the possibility of trading from the MLB roster and said, “As far as due diligence, we’ll always listen.”
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.”
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