Dodgers Fan Favorite Announces He's Returning to Los Angeles
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J.P. Hoornstra writes and edits Major League Baseball content. A veteran of 20 years of sports coverage for daily newspapers in California, J.P. covered MLB, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Los Angeles Angels (occasionally of Anaheim) from 2012-23 for the Southern California News Group. His first book, The 50 Greatest Dodgers Games of All-Time, published in 2015. In 2016, he won an Associated Press Sports Editors award for breaking news coverage. He once recorded a keyboard solo on the same album as two of the original Doors.
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The Los Angeles Dodgers are bringing back fan favorite utility player Kiké Hernández, the veteran announced himself on social media Sunday.
According to Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic, the new contract is pending a physical.
Hernández was instrumental in the Dodgers' run to the 2024 World Series championship. His home run in Game 5 of the National League Division Series against the San Diego Padres accounted for half of the team's runs in a series-clinching 2-0 victory.
The 33-year-old has spent eight of his 11 major league seasons in Los Angeles, winning World Series rings in 2020 as well as 2024.
In 86 career postseason games — all but 11 with Los Angeles — Hernández has hit .278 with a .353 on-base percentage and a .522 slugging percentage. Those marks are all notably higher than his regular season slash line of .238/.308/.405, underscoring his importance to a roster with ambitions of back-to-back championships.
Hernández followed up his heroics in the 2024 NLDS with a 7-for-24 (.292) performance with a home run in the NL Championship Series against the New York Mets. Appearing in all five World Series games against the Yankees, he batted .278 (5 for 18) with a triple and three runs scored.
The Dodgers signed Hernández relatively late in the offseason for the second straight year. He agreed to a free-agent contract with the Dodgers in Feb. 2024, re-signing with the team that acquired him from the Boston Red Sox in a July 2023 trade for two minor leaguers.
More to come on this story from Newsweek Sports.