As things presently stand, the Los Angeles Dodgers are in pretty good shape heading into spring training.
Heading into the offseason, the team had medium-sized needs they wanted to address, a left fielder and a closer, in order to load up for a third-straight trip to the World Series, and address them they did in the most Dodgers way possible.
First came a closer, with the top name on the open market, Edwin Diaz, choosing LA over his New York Mets over a reported $3 million pay difference over three years. The Dodgers invested in the position in 2024 as well, re-signing Blake Treinen to pair with free agents Tanner Scott and Kirby Yates, but that trio struggled for most of the regular season, with the former filling more of a middle-reliever role behind starter-turned-closer Roki Sasaki while the latter two didn't even make the postseason roster. In Diaz, the Dodgers paid a premium to bring over a sure thing from Flushing to Elysian Park, and will have fans air-trumpeting along to “Narcos” in a few short months as a result.
Then, LA did it again.
After watching the market take an increasingly wait-and-see approach to top stars like Cody Bellinger and Bo Bichette, the Dodgers landed the top position player on the market, Kyle Tucker, with a record-setting contract to solve their outfield issues once and for all. With Tucker locked in for at least the next two years on a four-year, $240 million deal, the Dodgers finally put their right field concerns to bed, with Teoscar Hernandez shifting over to left field to better hide his defensive limitations moving forward.
Factor in a few more minor moves around the margins, and the Dodgers have had a top-tier offseason by almost any metric.
And yet, there is one move the team still needs to make in order to turn an A offseason into an A+, as there's one member of their last two World Series squads that remains unsigned mere weeks before the start of training camp: Kike Hernandez.
The Dodgers need to bring back Kike Hernandez
In 2025, it was easier to say what Kike Hernandez couldn't do for the Dodgers than what he put on tape for the eventual World Series Champions.
When the Dodgers needed a defensive replacement for Freddy Freeman at first base? Hernandez was Dave Roberts' go-to guy. When the Dodgers needed someone with a big enough arm to play some cleanup time at third base or left field, Hernandez's phone would ring, too. Goodness, Hernandez even logged innings as a garbage-time pitcher on multiple occasions before finally settling into the left field spot full-time during the playoffs as the Dodgers' October ringer.
So why, fans may ask, hasn't Hernandez re-signed with the Dodgers as they look to effectively keep the band together in pursuit of the three-peat? Well, af Dodger FanFest, Miguel Rojas weighed in not just that, noting that he talked to Hernandez all the time as he works back from some offseason surgeries.
“I’m in constant communication with Kiké. I have no doubt that he’s gonna be back. Everybody in this clubhouse wants him back,” Rojas revealed via Dodgers Nation.
“It definitely has something to do with his injury and the stuff that he’s going through right now. He’s not gonna be ready until a couple months into the season, but I’m crossing my fingers and keeping the hope that we’re going to have Kiké because we all know how important he is for the clubhouse, for the organization, for the fans, for the city of LA, and he deserves to be with us too.”
Now granted, Rojas' declaration isn't exactly news, as Hernandez himself noted that he wasn't 100 percent down the stretch for the Dodgers last season and had some procedures in his future when the calendar flipped over from 2025 to 2026. If it takes him until April, May, or even later to be ready for baseball activities, it makes sense that the Dodgers might not want to waste a roster spot on a player they already know is more impactful in October than June, especially considering he is plug-n-play at basically every position on the field for Los Angeles at this point in his career.
Would it be a feel-good moment to have Hernandez back in Dodgers Blue and White this spring? Most certainly so, as the team could then place him on IL and allow him to rehab with a guaranteed contract waiting for him when he's eventually ready to play. But if that isn't in the cards, that's okay too, as it's unlikely Hernandez would even want to play for another team before calling it a career, let alone have other World Series-caliber squads banging down his door to add a 34-year-old superutility player to their roster.
