How good is Teoscar Hernandez?

Teoscar Hernandez has developed into a very, very good player for the Toronto Blue Jays.

How good? Well, for the sake of comparison, let’s stack him up against a New York Yankee who earned a $325 million contract. 
I will argue with every fiber of my being that Teoscar Hernandez is better than Giancarlo Stanton. There are quite a few reasons for this.

Statistics:
We’ll start with offensive statistics from each of the past three seasons. While there are two other reasons as to why Teoscar is the better player, the argument can be made that the Blue Jay is better solely for his offensive statistics.
2019:
The season of 2019 wasn’t a great one from Teoscar, as he had a slash line of .230/.306/.779 with 26 homers in 126 games. While that’s not an awful slash line for slugger, his K% of 33% was pretty awful.  In fact, the then 26-year-old had such a rough start to his 2019 season that he was sent to Triple A in mid May. Prior to the demotion, he slashed .196/.266/.587 in 124 plate appearances with a wRC+ of 52.
He spent 20 days in Buffalo before being called up. Upon his return, he slashed .248/.325/.873 with a 126 wRC+. Furthermore, he hit 23 of his 26 home runs upon being recalled. He finished the season with a fWAR of 1.2 and a bWAR of 1.4.
It’s impossible to compare with 2019 Stanton, as he missed all but 18 games. It’s inarguable that in the season prior Stanton …

Read More

Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Revisiting how the Blue Jays turned Drew Hutchison into Teoscar Hernandez

Teoscar Hernandez is a starter in this year’s All-Star game.

While I believe Cedric Mullins should have gotten the nod above him, I also believe that Teoscar Hernandez is a very good player. How did we get our all-star right fielder? Well for that, we will have to go all the way back to what I believe is the greatest Toronto Blue Jays trade tree in history…

Drew Hutchison…
First, we’ll need a back story about the former Jays pitcher named Hutch. Foolish Baseball recently produced a great video on why the pitcher record is so useless. In this video, he used Hutchison as an example. Why? Well because even though Drew has been a subpar pitcher in the MLB (5.10 ERA), he has a lot more wins than losses (32-23).
This includes one of the wildest splits I have ever seen. In 2015, Hutchison started in 13 away games, had an ERA of 9.83 and finished with a record of 2-3. However, at home, he was what you would call an ace. In 15 home starts, he had a 2.91 ERA with a record of 11-2! Is this important to the trade tree? No, I just find this utterly bonkers.
He only played …

Read More

Author: Brennan Delaney / Blue Jays Nation

Alek Manoah continues to dominate Triple-A competition

Hyun Jin Ryu tossed a gem and Teoscar Hernandez hit two homers as the Blue Jays won yet another game over the Atlanta Braves.

But, while that was going on, the real story was happening up in New Jersey. Alek Manoah made his second Triple-A start for the Thunder-Bisons and absolutely dominated.
Manoah went six innings allowing just one hit and two walks while striking out five. He’s now tossed 12 scoreless innings, has surrendered just three hits, and has 17 strikeouts.

Facing @Alek_Manoah47… a 3-part story. #BlueJays | @MiLB pic.twitter.com/T7kzsrSJ8W
— Buffalo Bisons🦬 (@BuffaloBisons) May 12, 2021

Apparently, Ross Atkins was in Trenton to watch the game and I don’t think the objective was to see Logan Warmoth hit a homer. I would assume based on that and, well, obviously, the fact he’s making a fool of Triple-A competition, that Manoah might be making his next start for the Blue Jays.

Read More

Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

Teoscar Hernandez and the Blue Jays avoid arbitration with a one-year, $4,325,000 deal

Teoscar Hernandez has earned himself a nice payday after his breakout season in 2020.

The Blue Jays and their slugger have reached a one-year contract worth $4,325,000, avoiding arbitration, according to MLB Insider Robert Murray.

Source: Blue Jays, Teoscar Hernandez settle at $4,325,000, avoiding arbitration.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) January 15, 2021

Hernandez is one of two Blue Jays who is eligible for arbitration this year, with the other one being pitcher Ross Stripling. Travis Shaw also would have been arb-eligible but the Blue Jays non-tendered him back in early-December.
There had been some speculation that the Blue Jays would look to lock Hernandez up to a long-term deal after his breakout showing this season, much like the team did with Jose Bautista back in 2010. But, given how small the sample size was for Hernandez’s great season, the front office likely wants to see if he can repeat his performance over the length of a normal season before making such a commitment.
Hernandez slashed a .289/.340/.579 line with 16 homers over the course of 50 games in 2020 and earned himself a Silver Slugger award and a few votes for American League Most Valuable Player. This breakout wasn’t totally out of the blue as Hernandez slashed a .248/.325/.548 line …

Read More

Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

The Blue Jays now sit fifth in the American League standings after a huge comeback win over the Yankees

No Bo Bichette? No Teoscar Hernandez? No problem. The Blue Jays’ lineup exploded for a 10-run inning to sink the Yankees on Monday night, making one of their most important victories of the season.

Things worth mentioning…

It’s been mentioned many, many times, but this stretch against the Yankees (10 games in a couple of weeks) is absolutely massive for the Blue Jays. If they do well during this stretch, they can certainly finish with the second-best record in the American League East and shove the Yankees down into a battle for seventh and eighth in the league.
It looked like the New York Grind got off to an ugly start last night when Hyun Jin Ryu got roughed up. Ryu, who had been lights out over the past month, allowed three homers and left the game with the Blue Jays trailing by a score of 5-2. The issue for Ryu on Monday was that his mix of pitches became too predictable. He generally throws an array of five different pitches to keep hitters off-balance, but against the Yankees on Monday, he threw 61 changeups or curveballs. Two of the homers he allowed in the first came on …

Read More

Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation

Teoscar Hernández has gone full Bo Bichette

No matter how you slice it, Teoscar Hernández has been one of the best power hitters in baseball this season.

He ranks in the top 15 of home runs, slugging percentage, isolated slugging, and his 95.5mph exit velocity places him in the top five in baseball alongside Fernando Tatís Jr. Miguel Sanó, Juan Soto, and Gregory Polanco.
And this more than just a small sample blip. Since June 5th, 2019, when Teoscar made his return from a demotion to the minors, he has hit .259/.323./.567 with 30 home runs, in 105 games. That translates to a .366 wOBA and a 130wRC+, per Fangraphs. His .308 ISO (slugging percentage minus batting average) of .308 ties him with José Ramírez and Aaron Judge for fifth in baseball. For context, the four hitters above Hernandez are Jorge Soler, Soto, Nelson Cruz, and Mike Trout. If that wasn’t enough Teoscar’s average exit velocity of 92.9mph places him eighth among qualified hitters.
So yeah Teoscar has some serious power. What’s kept him from tapping into that power and becoming a more consistent power hitter, has been the swing and miss in his game. He strikes out way too much. …

Read More

Author: Paul Berthelot / Blue Jays Nation

Teoscar Hernandez went to hell and back last night

Welcome to the Teoscar Hernandez experience! While Hernandez has a lot of upside, mostly in his bat, he’s certainly prone to gaffes, both in the field and on the bases. Last night, we got a look at both ends of Hernandez’s spectrum.

In the sixth inning, Hernandez was standing at first with Brandon Drury at the plate and the Jays down 3-1. Drury took a 2-2 pitch for a ball, thought for some reason that he took a walk, and began to jog to first base. Hernandez, obviously confused about what was going on, began trotting to second base. The pitcher threw the ball to the first baseman and tagged Hernandez out before he could make it safely back to first.


Uhhhhhhhhh. Okay! I’ll be honest, I don’t think this is on Hernandez so much as it is on Drury. I mean, Hernandez is the one who looks like a donkey on the play because he got thrown out, but the batter reaaaaaally needs to know what the count is.
Anyways, Hernandez obviously felt bad about the play, but he ended up compensating for it soon after when …

Read More

Author: Cam Lewis / Blue Jays Nation