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Teoscar Hernandez came over to the Blue Jays, along with Norichika Aoki, from the Astros, for Francisco Liriano, at the 2017 deadline. Some scout deserves a bonus.
He is the type of player I enjoy getting to watch daily. He’s improved in many ways each season. I think the fun of baseball is watching players progress.
Teoscar’s first couple of years with the Jays weren’t terrific. He was very average, with some hot streaks thrown in to keep us interested. Then, in 2020, he became a star, hitting .289/.340/.579 with 16 home runs in 50 games. After that, we wondered if he could keep it up for an entire season.
He could.
Last year, Teoscar hit .296/.346/.524 with 32 home runs, making the All-Star team, winning the Silver Slugger and getting some MVP votes for the second year in a row.
On the defense side, he had his career first UZR number in the positive range, a 1.7/150 in right field, and a positive in left as well (just 250 innings) at 1.5. I think, after watching him, we would all agree he was much better last year. In past years, he preferred to let the ball go past him to the wall and pick it up there. However, last year, he seemed to show some urgency to cut the ball off before it got to the wall, saving bases on the defensive side.
And the team seems to like his defense. When they made defensive changes late in games, he moved from right to left field, and Glove Glove finalist Lourdes Gurriel went to the bench.
Teoscar can be a free agent after the 2023 season. At some point, they will have to discuss a contract extension. Of course, he is 29 now, so he’ll be going into his age 31 season when he clears his arbitrations years.
And his peak, by WAR, his peak hasn’t been all that terrific. He had his best season last year, a 3.9 fWAR. But, he’s not yet, a 5+ WAR guy, and I’m not sure if we should guess that he will get there in his thirties (not that a guy in the high 3s isn’t someone we should want on our team).
I’d think they would look to extend him at some point this year. I don’t know where they would come together, something like five years and $100 million?
PECOTA expects Teoscar to play 144 games hit 28 home runs, with a .262/.321/.473 line, a 2.3 WAR (a bit of a drop from his .296/.346/.524 with 32 home runs from last year).
Poll
If the over/under on Teoscar’s home runs is 28 I’d take the
Poll
If we guessed $100 million and 5 years (including his last arbitration year) for a Teoscar extension would that be
This poll is closed
-
7%
Too little average yearly money
(19 votes) -
0%
Too few years
(2 votes) -
52%
About right
(125 votes) -
20%
Too many years
(50 votes) -
18%
Too much average yearly money
(44 votes)
Poll
Teoscar led the team in RBI last year, this year the team leader in RBI will be
This poll is closed
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4%
Bo Bichette
(10 votes) -
6%
George Springer
(17 votes) -
4%
Matt Chapman
(11 votes) -
13%
Teoscar Hernandez
(34 votes) -
70%
Vladimir Guerrero
(174 votes) -
0%
Someone Else?
(0 votes)
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