Browsing: Hernandez

Would the Dodgers have paid $4 million for Shohei Ohtaniâ€s production on Friday night?

“Maybe I would have,†team owner Mark Walter said with a laugh.

Four million dollars is how much Ohtani has received from the Dodgers.

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Not for the game. Not for the week. Not for the year.

For this year and last year.

Ohtani could be the greatest player in baseball history. Is he also the greatest free-agent acquisition of all-time?

“You bet,†Walter said.

Even before Ohtani blasted three homers and struck out 10 batters over six scoreless innings in a historic performance to secure his teamâ€s place in the World Series, the Dodgers were a target of complaints over the perception they were buying championships. Their payroll this season is more than $416 million, according to Spotrac.

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During the on-field celebration that followed the 5-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series, manager Dave Roberts told the Dodger Stadium crowd, “Iâ€ll tell you, before this season started, they said the Dodgers are ruining baseball. Letâ€s get four more wins and really ruin baseball!â€

What detractors ignore is how the Dodgers arenâ€t the only team that spent big dollars this year to chase a title. As Ohtaniâ€s contract demonstrates, itâ€s how they spend that separates them from the sportâ€s other wealthy franchises.

The New York Mets spent more than $340 million, the New York Yankees $319 million and the Philadelphia Phillies $308 million. None of them are still playing.

The Dodgers are still playing, and one of the reasons is because of how opportunistic they are.

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When the Boston Red Sox were looking for a place to dump Mookie Betts before he became a free agent, the Dodgers traded for him and signed him to an extension. When the Atlanta Braves refused to extend a six-year offer to Freddie Freeman, the Dodgers stepped in and did.

Something else that helps: Players want to play for them.

Consider the case of the San Francisco Giants, who canâ€t talk star players into taking their money.

The Giants pursued Bryce Harper, who turned them down. They pursued Aaron Judge, who turned them down. They pursued Ohtani, who turned them down. They pursued Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who turned them down.

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Notice a pattern?

Unable to recruit an impact hitter in free agency, the Giants turned their attention to the trade market and acquired a distressed asset in malcontent Rafael Devers. They still missed the postseason.

The Dodgers donâ€t have any such problems attracting talent. Classified as an international amateur because he was under the age of 25, Roki Sasaki was eligible to sign only a minor-league contract this winter. While the signing bonuses that could be offered varied from team to team, the differences were relatively small. Sasaki was urged by his agent to minimize financial considerations when picking a team.

Sasaki chose the Dodgers.

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Players such as Blake Snell, Will Smith and Max Muncy signed what could be below-market deals to come to or stay with the Dodgers.

There is also the Ohtani factor.

Ohtani didnâ€t want the team that signed him to be financially hamstrung, which is why he insisted that it defer the majority of his 10-year, $700-million contract. The Dodgers are paying Ohtani just $2 million annually, with the remainder owed after he retires.

Without Ohtani agreeing to delayed payments, who knows if the Dodgers would have signed the other pitchers who comprise their dominant rotation, Yamamoto, Snell and Tyler Glasnow.

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None of this is to say the Dodgers havenâ€t made any mistakes, the $102 million they committed to Trevor Bauer a decision they would certainly like to take back.

But the point is they spend.

“We put money into the team, as you know,†Walter said. “Weâ€re trying to win.â€

Nothing is stopping any other team from making the financial commitments necessary to compete with the Dodgers. Franchises donâ€t have to make annual profits to be lucrative, as their values have skyrocketed. Teams that were purchased for hundreds of millions of dollars are now worth billions.

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Example: Arte Moreno bought the Angels in 2003 for $183.5 million. Forbes values them today at $2.75 billion. If or when Moreno sells the team, he will receive a huge return on his investment.

The calls for a salary cap are nothing more than justifications by cheap owners for their refusal to invest in the civic institutions under their control.

The Dodgers arenâ€t ruining baseball. They might not do everything right, but as far as their spending is concerned, theyâ€re doing right by their fans.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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  David SchoenfieldOct 4, 2025, 10:22 PM ET

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  • Covers MLB for ESPN.com
  • Former deputy editor of Page 2
  • Been with ESPN.com since 1995

PHILADELPHIA — With one seventh-inning swing from Teoscar Hernandez and two starting pitchers used in relief, the narrative of the anticipated showdown between the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers took a twist as the Dodgers rallied from a three-run deficit to take a 5-3 win in Game 1 of the NL Division Series on Saturday night.

The Phillies, who have constructed their best bullpen during their four-year run of playoff appearances, suffered a familiar fate: a reliever blowing a lead late in a playoff game.

The Dodgers, who have suffered from bullpen problems all season, saw their pen hold the lead — albeit with a few nerves frayed in the process.

Hernandez’s two-out, three-run home run in the seventh off Matt Strahm was his third of the postseason. The blast capped the comeback and gave the victory to Shohei Ohtani, who struck out nine in six innings in his first career postseason start as a pitcher.

Tyler Glasnow, the projected Game 4 starter, then recorded five outs in relief, and Roki Sasaki, who returned late in the season from a shoulder injury to make two relief appearances and then one more against the Reds in the wild-card series, got the final three outs for his first big league save. Between those appearances, Alex Vesia — part of the much-maligned regular Dodgers relief corps — notched the biggest out of the game, inducing Edmundo Sosa to fly out to center field with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning.

Glasnow, who started warming up in the sixth inning when the Dodgers were trailing, entered with the lead. “It was definitely different,” said Glasnow, who last made a relief appearance when he was with the Pirates in 2018. “I was in the bathroom, and the phone rang and they yelled my name.”

Glasnow didn’t know if he’d pitch in the game. Beforehand, the coaching staff told him to go to the pen. Glasnow said he had been in relief mode since the wild-card series, throwing at least a few pitches every day in case he was needed.

He ran out of the bathroom. “I warmed up and it definitely felt weird, but fun; the adrenaline of kind of having more things going on, not needing as much effort to get the same stuff,” he said. “Then, Teo hit the home run.”

Cristopher Sanchez had dominated the Dodgers until Enrique Hernandez drilled a two-run double with two outs in the sixth, cutting the Dodgers’ deficit to 3-2. After David Robertson put two runners on in the seventh, Strahm faced the top of the Dodgers’ lineup, starting with a lefty-lefty matchup with Ohtani. Strahm struck him out looking, Ohtani’s fourth strikeout of the game. Mookie Betts popped up to third, and that brought up Teoscar Hernandez, who was ready for the at-bat.

“I watched videos. He likes to go up in the strike zone,” Hernandez said. “I think that’s when he’s stronger. And something up in the strike zone. My first three at-bats, I chased a lot of down. Not trying to do overswinging or anything like that. Maybe a hit. Try to bring in one run to tie the game. But he left it over the strike zone.”

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It wasn’t a bad pitch by Strahm. Hernandez struggles on pitches up in the zone, and he had just two home runs all season on fastballs in the upper third of the strike zone. He didn’t miss this one, crushing Strahm’s 1-0 fastball 394 feet to right-center.

Hernandez was a postseason star last year for the Dodgers and homered twice in the first game against the Reds in the wild-card series. He now has 25 RBIs in his first 23 postseason games, tied with Rafael Devers and Scott Spiezio for the second most through 23 games behind only Lou Gehrig, who had 31.

Maybe it wasn’t a surprise that the rally occurred in the seventh inning. Miguel Rojas and Max Muncy mentioned before the game that hitting coach Aaron Bates said in the hitters’ meeting to be ready for the intensity and the crowd noise from the start of the game — and be ready for the seventh inning. “He said that we were going to have an opportunity to come back in the game,” Rojas said.

Glasnow is only a temporary bullpen solution because he’ll still start Game 4 if the series goes that long. Sasaki, however, has thrown four scoreless innings in his four relief appearances. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts wouldn’t confirm that Sasaki is officially his closer.

“I felt good with Glas tonight in some capacity, given that he’s going to start a potential Game 4,” Roberts said. “I felt good about Vesia in some capacity tonight. And with Roki, I just felt that the lane right there, you know, asking Alex to do an up-down, I just felt comfortable with him right there. Honestly, I could have gone to a couple other guys in those spots, but just kind of knowing who I’ve got, I felt good about those guys we ran out there.”

The Phillies are staring at the same demons as 2023, when Craig Kimbrel lost twice in the NLCS to the Diamondbacks, and 2024, when Jeff Hoffman lost twice to the Mets in the NLDS and Strahm allowed four runs over two innings.

“I feel like I got gut-punched on missing two pitches,” said Strahm, who said he forgot about last year’s NLDS struggles. “And one of the two got damaged.”

Robertson, the veteran reliever who is 10th all time in postseason games pitched, said there is no panic. “We’re down one game. It’s not a big deal. Play the best three out of five, so we’ve got plenty of time to make up some ground,” he said. “We need to come back. We have the off day tomorrow. Come back and win a ballgame at home and then get ready to go on the road.”

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For Kiké Hernández, the regular season is little more than a six-month warm-up. Real baseball is played when the evening air turns crisp and the leaves begin to change.

And when summer turns to fall few players have stepped up bigger than Hernández, who had two hits, scored two runs and drove in another Wednesday, spurring a Dodger comeback that ended in an 8-4 win over the Cincinnati Reds and a sweep of their National League wild-card series.

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That sends the team on to the best-of-five Division Series with the Phillies, which begins Saturday in Philadelphia.

“October Kiké is something pretty special,†Dodger manager Dave Roberts said. “And the track record speaks for itself. He’s one of the best throughout the history of the postseason.â€

Itâ€s a reputation heâ€s earned.

A .236 career hitter in the regular season, Hernández has hit .286 in 88 postseason games. He slashed .203/.255/.366 in an injury-marred regular season this year, but two games into the playoffs heâ€s hitting .500, leads the Dodgers with three runs scored and ranks second to Mookie Betts with four hits. He also made a splendid over-the-shoulder catch while racing to the warning track in the first inning Wednesday.

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“Some guys are built for this moment. Heâ€s definitely one of them,†said third baseman Max Muncy, standing in the middle of the Dodgers†batting cage during the teamâ€s postgame celebration, his blue T-shirt soaked in champagne as a teammate poured beer over his head.

Hernández, wearing goggles but not a shirt, made a brief appearance at the victory party but departed to celebrate with family before the champagne and beer began to puddle on the plastic sheeting that covered the floor.

His teammates were all too happy to speak about him in his absence.

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“He’s a guy who is not shy from the from the moment,†infielder Miguel Rojas said. “I feel like the regular season for him is not enough.â€

Rojas said he learned that first hand after rejoining the Dodgers in 2023. Although the teamâ€s playoff run was brief, Hernández led the team with two RBIs and was second in hits and average.

“I saw it on TV before. But when I got here I saw that it was real,†he said. “He always wanted the moment and he showed it tonight with a big double to tie the game.â€

That came with one out in the fourth, when his line drive to center field scored Muncy from first to tie the score, 2-2. Four pitches later he scored on Rojas†single, putting the Dodgers ahead to stay.

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But Hernández wasnâ€t finished. Two innings later he led off with a squibber up the third-base line that was going foul before it hit the bag for a single, starting a four-run rally that put the game away. The bottom third of the Dodger lineup — Hernández, Rojas and catcher Ben Rortvedt — combined to go six for 12 with five runs and two RBIs.

“Kiké is Kiké,†outfielder Teoscar Hernández said above the din of the celebration. “That’s the guy you get when October starts.â€

Before that? Not so much. But for Hernández, the postseason has become redemption time.

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“I know they brought me here for these types of moments,†he said before Wednesdayâ€s game.

“The beautiful thing about the postseason is that once we get to the postseason, everything starts at zero. You can have a bad year and you flip the script and you start over in the postseason. You have a good postseason, help the team win, and nobody ever remembers what you did in the regular season.â€

Hernández, 34, owes much of his fall heroics simply to the opportunity to play on the sportâ€s biggest stage. In a dozen big-league seasons, heâ€s made the playoffs 10 times, playing in 21 postseason series with the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox and winning two World Series rings.

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“I’ve been blessed to be on the right team at the right time,†he said. “Being a good postseason player is kind of an individual thing, but not really. You’re on a team that doesn’t make the playoffs, you can’t be a postseason player.

“I just happen to be on a lot of really good teams, and I’ve been fortunate enough to get a lot of chances.â€

With his performance Wednesday, he assured himself at least three more chances in the division series with the Phillies. And Rojas expects him to take full advantage.

“He always wants the moment and he wants to be out there,†he said. “I’m learning from him every single day. He’s the most prepared guy that I’ve ever played with.â€

Especially in October.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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Thereâ€s desperate, and thereâ€s desperate to where youâ€re looking for Roki Sasaki to be the answer to your teamâ€s late-inning problems.

The same Roki Sasaki who hasnâ€t pitched in a major league game in more than four months because of shoulder problems.

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The same Roki Sasaki who posted a 4.72 earned-run average in eight starts.

The same Roki Sasaki who last week in the minors pitched as a reliever for the first time.

The Dodgers†exploration of Sasaki as a late-inning option is a reflection of the 23-year-old rookieâ€s upside, but this isnâ€t a commentary of Sasaki as much as it is of the roster.

The teamâ€s bullpen problems have persisted into the final week of the regular season, and the potential solutions sound like miracles, starting with Sasakiâ€s audition for a postseason role as a reliever.

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Sasaki pitched twice in relief for triple-A Oklahoma City, touching 100 mph in a scoreless inning on Thursday and retiring the side on Sunday.

Manager Dave Roberts said Sasaki would rejoin the Dodgers for their upcoming road series against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The earliest Sasaki would be available to pitch would be on Wednesday.

With only six games remaining in the regular season, Sasaki figures to pitch no more than twice for the Dodgers before the playoffs. That being the case, do the Dodgers plan to use him in high-leverage situations to learn how he performs in late-inning situations?

“Weâ€re still trying to win games, and this would be his third outing in the ‘pen, first in the big leagues, so not sure,†Roberts said.

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Then again, whatâ€s the alternative? Continue to run out Blake Treinen?

The most dependable reliever on the Dodgers†World Series run last season, the 37-year-old Treinen was re-signed to a two-year, $22-million contract over the winter. He missed more than three months of this season with a forearm strain and hasnâ€t rediscovered the form that made him a postseason hero. Treinen is 1-7 with a 5.55 earned-run average for the season and has taken a loss in five of his last seven games.

Treinen cost the Dodgers another game on Sunday when he inherited a 1-0 lead, only to give up three runs in the eighth inning of an eventual 3-1 defeat.

Roberts was booed when he emerged from the dugout to remove Treinen, but whom did the fans want the manager to call on to pitch that inning instead?

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Tanner Scott?

Kirby Yates?

Alex Vesia is the most trustworthy bullpen arm, but if he pitched the eighth inning, who would have pitched the ninth?

Dodgers pitcher Blake Treinen, right, reacts after giving up a bases-loaded walk in a 3-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Roberts acknowledged he was basically reduced to holding out hope that when the postseason starts Treinen would magically revert to being the pitcher he was last year.

Wouldnâ€t it be unsettling to have to count on Treinen without seeing him pitch better in the regular season?

“Certainly, Iâ€d like to see some more consistent performance,†Roberts said. “But at the end of the day, thereâ€s going to be certain guys that I feel that weâ€re going to go to in leverage [situations] and certain guys weâ€re not going to.â€

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Evidently, Treinen is still viewed as a leverage-situation pitcher.

Roberts said: “My trust in him is unwavering.â€

There arenâ€t many other choices.

Maybe Will Klein, who was called up from the minors for the third time last week. Klein struck out the side on Saturday and gave up a leadoff double in a scoreless inning on Sunday.

Maybe Brock Stewart, who has been sidelined with shoulder problems for the majority of the time since he was acquired at the trade deadline. Stewart will rejoin the Dodgers in Arizona.

Or maybe Emmet Sheehan or Clayton Kershaw, who are expected to be pushed out of the postseason rotation by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Blake Snell, Shohei Ohtani and Tyler Glasnow. Sheehan started on Sunday and pitched seven scoreless innings.

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The playoff picture is unlikely to change for the Dodgers between now and the end of the regular season, as they are four games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the No. 2 seed in the National League and three games ahead of the second-place San Diego Padres in the NL West. Nonetheless, Roberts said he was unsure of how high-leverage innings over the next week would be allocated, which spoke to the degree of uncertainty about the bullpen. Should these innings be used to straighten out previously-successful relievers such as Treinen and Scott? Or to experiment with unknown commodities such as Sasaki and Klein?

Just a couple of weeks ago, the door for Sasaki pitching in the playoffs was locked and bolted. The Dodgers have been rocked by the dreadful performance of their bullpen, so much so that a door that was once slammed shut is now wide open.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

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