{"id":121354,"date":"2026-05-05T18:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T22:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=121354"},"modified":"2026-05-05T20:49:42","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:49:42","slug":"versatile-dodgers-player-returning-soon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/05\/05\/versatile-dodgers-player-returning-soon\/","title":{"rendered":"Versatile Dodgers Utility Man Returning Soon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers appear to be getting healthy. Utility man <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/h\/hernaen02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Enrique Hernandez<\/a> starts <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/02\/09\/dodgers-signs-super-utilityman-enrique-hernandez\/\" target=\"_self\">a rehab assignment today a<\/a>t Triple-A Oklahoma City. He will be playing third base, according to Alex Freedman , Director of Communications of the Dodgers minor-league affiliate. He could be activated from the Injured List in about three weeks. This news comes on the heels of right-handed reliever <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/stewabr01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Brock Stewart<\/a> joining the club in Houston.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Couple of longtime <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Dodgers?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#Dodgers<\/a> in the house today in OKC. Kik\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez begins a rehab assignment. Will bat second and play 3B.<\/p>\n<p>On the other side, Chris Taylor is here with Salt Lake.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alex Freedman (@azfreedman) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/azfreedman\/status\/2051751363529326997?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">May 5, 2026<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>A Long Road Back<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" style=\"max-width: px\"><smartframe-embed class=\"smartframe_wp_element\" customer-id=\"b0c95bc04383cef69c6b47df872135cf\" image-id=\"WmOBTQ2RIy4O\" style=\"width: 100%; display: inline-flex; max-width: 3072px; aspect-ratio: 3072\/2048;\" ><\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n<p>The Dodgers signed Hernandez to a deal in Spring Training knowing he would not be available until late-May. The fan-favorite had off-season <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/08\/25\/dodgers-activate-kike-hernandez-buddy\/\" target=\"_self\">surgery to repair his elbow.<\/a> The infielder\/outfielder has played every position on the diamond, save catcher, gives Los Angeles the ability to adapt in ways that aren&#8217;t available to most teams.The injury Hernandez sustained happened nearly a year ago in Cleveland, when he slid awkwardly into a base. He was able to play with the injury until season&#8217;s end. However, it did appear that it did affect him offensively. Hernandez numbers were down from where they normally are in October. Thankfully, it didn&#8217;t affect his defense that much, as he made a World Series saving-play for the Dodgers in Game six.<\/p>\n<h2>The West Coast Version Of &#8220;Mr. October&#8221;<\/h2>\n<p>A normal regular season for Hernandez usually consists of a batting average of .240. with double-digit home runs. In 2025, however, the average barely got above .200 and there was little to no bump in the average when the calendar turned to October. Historically, that hasn&#8217;t been the case. The veteran plays better when the lights are brighter. Hernandez&#8217; average bumps up to over .300 and the Hernandez trails <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/ruthba01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Babe Ruth<\/a> for most postseason home runs by a right-handed bat.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p lang=\"fr\" dir=\"ltr\">Kik\u00e9 Hernandez is a DEMON in October! <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/LAYVZVWEhE\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/LAYVZVWEhE<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Jomboy Media (@JomboyMedia) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JomboyMedia\/status\/1846734190139613446?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">October 17, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>As if that wasn&#8217;t enough good news, <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bettsmo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Mookie Betts<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2026\/04\/04\/dodgers-mookie-betts-sidelined-back-injury\/\" target=\"_self\">should be back <\/a>in the big leagues soon, along with <a  target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/s\/snellbl01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=lastwordonsports.com&amp;utm_campaign=2026-05-05_br\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Blake Snell<\/a>. Needless to say, the Dodgers know it&#8217;s easier to win once you are healthy.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><em>(Top Image Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Dodgers appear to be getting healthy. Utility man Enrique Hernandez starts a rehab assignment today at Triple-A Oklahoma City. He will be playing third base, according to Alex Freedman , Director of Communications of the Dodgers minor-league affiliate. He could be activated from the Injured List in about three weeks. This news [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5226,"featured_media":121369,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,33,1071],"tags":[2915,92,250],"class_list":["post-121354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-dodgers","category-mlb","tag-kike-hernandez","tag-los-angeles-dodgers","tag-mookie-betts"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5226"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121354"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121374,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121354\/revisions\/121374"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}