On July 15 Teoscar Hernandez won the 2024 home run derby. Hernandez hit 49 home runs through the three rounds.
Teoscar Hernandez had a unique path to the derby. Despite wanting to do it for years he hadn’t had a chance to participate until this year. He took his opportunity and ran with it.
Teoscar Hernandez path to derby
Teoscar Hernandez’s big league journey started in 2011 when he signed with the Astros as an international free agent at just 18 years old. He made his major league debut at age 23 in 2016. He played 41 games and hit four home runs and 11 runs batted in.
At the 2017 trade deadline, he was traded from the Astros to the Blue Jays for Francisco Liriano. He had played just one game in the majors for the Astros in 2017. He played 26 games for the Blue Jays after the deadline and hit eight home runs and 20 RBIs. 2018 is when Teoscar Hernandez would establish himself as a starter in the league. He played 134 games and hit 22 home runs.
In the shortened 2020 season, Hernandez would start to put himself in conversations with the stars of the league. Hernandez played in 50 of the 60 possible games and hit 16 home runs. He would keep this star level production in 2021. He hit a career high 32 home runs and 116 runs batted in to get his first all star appearance and his second silver slugger (first being in 2020)
Teoscar Hernandez would have another good season in 2022. This led to him being an appealing trade target for many teams. The Mariners ended up being the team that would trade for him. Hernandez still hit a good amount of home runs in 2023 for the Mariners with 26, but his overall ability to hit for power had declined. He had a .435 slugging percentage, which was the second lowest of his career behind his 41 game sample in his rookie season in 2016.
Photo via Fox 13 Seattle
Teoscar Hernandez in 2024
After a down season in 2023, teams were reluctant to give him a long term deal. The Dodgers offered Teoscar Hernandez a one year 23 million dollar deal. Although this is good money for a single year it does not provide the long term income Hernandez was looking for. So far Hernandez has looked much more like the Blue Jays version of himself. He has already hit 19 home runs at the all star break and has a slugging percentage of .475. These numbers earned him the second all star appearance of his career.
These numbers also got him an invite to the home run derby. In the first round he matched his regular season total of 19 home runs. This earned him the fourth seed in the second round. He and Alec Bohm of the Phillies tied with 14 home runs. This led to a swing off where Hernandez hit two home runs while Bohm only hit one.
This set up a final round matchup with Bobby Witt Jr. of the Royals. Hernandez started off slowly but got to 14 home runs by the end of the round. Witt Jr. had a similar situation. He entered the bonus round needing just one home run to tie and two to win. Unfortunately, his last swing only had the height but not the distance. This put Witt Jr.’s final home run total at 13 for the round, leading to Hernandez being crowned the home run champion.
Despite his huge power numbers, Hernandez was not seen by many as the likely winner. The odds showed him as the sixth most likely player to win the derby.
“It doesn’t matter who I’m going against,” Hernandez said “I’m going to bet on myself.”
One of the people celebrating the win was 2023 home run derby champion Vladimir Gurrero Jr. Guerrero Jr. did not do the home run derby this season but is open to doing it in the future. This could set up a 2025 matchup between the last two derby champions and the former Blue Jays teammates.
With his win Hernandez became the first Dodger to win the home run derby. The Dodgers took a chance on him by giving him a one year deal and they have seen huge rewards for their risk. Teoscar Hernandez should be in line for a big pay day if he manages to keep up his power from the first half.
