He's back: Fan favorite Kiké Hernández agrees to one-year deal with Dodgers
After welcoming a flurry of new faces to the organization this offseason, the Dodgers brought back a much more familiar figure on Sunday.
The team and Kiké Hernández have agreed on a one-year contract that will see the veteran utilityman re-sign with the club for its World Series defense in 2025, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who was not authorized to speak publicly.
Full terms of the deal, which is pending a physical, were not immediately clear. Hernández signaled the news himself by posting a video to social media Sunday afternoon, with the caption “walking through the open door.”
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The Dodgers had indeed been leaving the door open to a reunion with Hernández this offseason, even amid their half-billion dollars of other signings in recent months.
And all along, the 33-year-old had his sights set on remaining with the team, having played a key role in their run to a title in October.
During the team’s fan fest event this month, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman and general manager Brandon Gomes said the Dodgers were still in talks with Hernández, even as he reportedly fielded interest from other teams, including the New York Yankees.
And now, unlike when he left Los Angeles after the Dodgers’ 2020 title, he will be back to try and help the team become MLB’s first repeat champion in a quarter-century.
A longtime fan favorite dating back to his initial tenure with the Dodgers from 2015 to 2020, Hernández has authored a successful second chapter at Chavez Ravine since being reacquired by the Dodgers at the 2023 trade deadline.
That year, Hernández hit .262 in 54 games with the Dodgers, helping him earn a one-year, $4-million contract for 2024.
Last season, Hernández started slowly, carrying a sub-.200 batting average into August. But midseason refinements to his swing, as well as the discovery of an eye condition that prompted him to begin wearing glasses, led to a strong closing stretch that carried into the postseason, when Hernández provided some of his most memorable moments in a Dodgers uniform.
In Game 5 of the National League Division Series, Hernández hit one of the two solo home runs that lifted the Dodgers to a 2-0 win against the San Diego Padres. He followed that with seven hits and four RBIs in the NL Championship Series, then five more hits as the Dodgers knocked off the Yankees for their second title in five seasons.
“This guy always rises to the occasion,” manager Dave Roberts said at the time of Hernández, a career .278 hitter in playoff baseball. “The reason we got him this year was to win 11 games in October.”
Days after the team’s championship parade last fall, Hernández made it clear he was hoping to get the chance to do it again.
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“I really, really hope I’m back next year so we can run it back,” Hernández told Dodgers fans at an event in November. “So make sure you guys talk to Friedman and those guys, and let them know.”
The message, evidently, was received, with Hernández’s return fulfilling one of the final wishes the fan base — and his Dodgers teammates — had for the team’s big-spending winter.
“Everybody’s waiting for that news to pop up,” outfielder Teoscar Hernández said last week. “I want Kiké to be back.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
