The season that was: Teoscar Hernandez

The Blue Jays picked up Teoscar Hernandez (along with Norichika Aoki) from the Astros, for Francisco Liriano, at the deadline in 2017. Aoki didn’t last long, 12 games hitting .281/.294/.594 with 3 homers and was DFAed and released. Aoki finished the season with the Mets and then went to Japan and played the last two seasons there. This season he hit .297/.385/.442 in 134 games with the Yakult Swallows.

After the trade, Teoscar played in 26 games for us hitting .261/.305/.698 with 4 home runs in 53 at bats. We saw his power potential.

Last year he hit .239/.302/.468 with 22 home run in 134 games, while playing an very interesting version of left field.

This year:

Baseball Reference has him at a 1.3 WAR. FanGraphs at 1.2, giving him a value of $10.0 million to the Jays.

He had a .325 wOBA and a 102 wRC+.

Teoscar’s walk rate was 9.7%, up from 7.8 last year. Strikeout rate 33.0%, up from 31.2.

Compared to 2018, his line drive rate was down (17.8%, from 19.9), ground ball up (39.0 from 36.4) and fly ball down a bit (43.2%, from 43.7). More of his fly balls like the park (22.8% from 15.9).

His hard contact was way up (43.8%, from 37.3), and soft contact up a bit (16.2%, from 15.8). Both comes out of medium contact.

Teoscar’s BABIP was down slightly (.293, from .313). with the hard contact up you would think is BABIP would be up too.

He hit LHP (.246/.341/.493) much better than RHP (.222/.287/.462). Career he has been better against RHP.

With RISP he hit .315/.390/.707, which is pretty terrific

He hit about better at home (.240/.316/.514) as on the road (.220/.296/.431).

Teoscar was much better in the second half (.259/.346/.592) than in the first half (.204/.267/.361).

Hernandez by month:

• April: .217/.291/.337 with 2 home runs in 28 games.
• May: .114/.184/.200 with 1 home run in 11 games.
• June: .214/.276/.443 with 4 home runs in 19 games.
• July: .284/.346/.662 with 8 home runs in 22 games.
• August: ..224/.337/.513 with 6 home runs in 25 games.
• September: .271/.238/.571 with 5 home runs in 20 games.

He was sent to Buffalo May 16th and came back June 5th.

Defensively?

He played 635 innings in CF. He had a -13.2 UZR/150. We were told how much better he was in center than left. Well, I’m not sure that is true. He didn’t make any errors in center but then he didn’t get to as many balls as your average CFer would. I thought he was a little too careful at times, giving up on catchable balls.

In left, he played 356 innings. He had a 13.3 UZR/150. Yeah, that’s a positive UZR. It might be the small sample size but it’s a lot better of a number than last year’s -13.8. I didn’t think he looked all that much better in left. He made 3 errors in left.

FanGraphs has him a 0.7 runs better than average as a base runner. That’s much better than the -1.3 from last year. He stole 6 bases, caught 3 times, so that’s about even, so he must have been good running the bases at other times.

In games he started Teoscar hit:

• 1st: 2 games.
• 2nd: 5 games.
• 3rd: 4 games.
• 4th: 5 games.
• 5th: 26 games.
• 6th: 22 games.
• 7th: 24 games.
• 8th: 16 games.
• 9th: 7 games.

He hit in every spot in the order.

The Jays were 48-71 in games he started.

His longest hitting streak was 9 games. Longest on base streak 11 games.

Favorite team to face? He did well in interleague games with OPS numbers of 1.333, 1.115 and 1.472 against the Marlins (3 games), Mets (4 games) and Nationals (3). He hit .308/.308/.654 in 7 games against the Mariners.

Least favorite? He hit .063/.167/.063 in 4 games against the A’s.

The Jays were 50-61 in games he started.

His longest hitting streak was 9 games. Longest on base streak 14 games. Longest he went without a homer was 15 games.

His favorite team to face? Teoscar hit .276/.389/.690 with 4 home runs in 10 games against the Red Sox. He hit .271/.364/.646 with 5 home runs in 15 games against the Rays. Gotta like anyone hits those two teams well.

Least favorite? He had a rough time in inter-league play, hitting .154/.195/.308 in 14 games.

I’m not sold on him in center field. I think we need to do better there. I’m, as always, a Anthony Alford fan, but it seems that the team isn’t.

Teoscar is athletic enough to be a good outfielder but he turns 27 tomorrow and has played outfield since 2011 (when he was 18, in the Dominican Summer League), if he hasn’t become good in the outfield yet, I don’t see it happening now.

It is tough to give up on a guy who has that much power. He could DH, but then he’s going to have to hit better. He could play first, I guess, but that isn’t the position I’d want a guy who seems to have mental lapses far too often. First basemen are in on a lot more plays than outfielders. And he’s had 9 seasons (in MLB systems, likely more than that before) to learn outfield. I’m not sure he’d pick up first base in a month and a half of spring training.

It would be great if he could cut back on the strikeouts some. You have to be pretty good to successful if you strikeout 1 out of 3 at bats.

After his return from Buffalo Teoscar hit .248/.325/.548 with 23 home runs in 86 games. A full season like that would be pretty great, and wouldn’t care so much about how he fields.

I wonder if there is a 40 home run season in his future?

I’m still not a fan of the sunflower seeds thing.

Here is Teoscar hitting a walk-off home run:

.