The Royals announced that they have signed backstop Oscar Hernandez. He’ll receive an invitation to participate in Summer Camp.
Hernandez, 26, was cut loose recently by the Cardinals. He’s trying to find his way back to the majors for the first time since 2016.
The Diamondbacks carried Hernandez in the majors in order to secure his rights through the Rule 5 draft. But the effort was for naught. Hernandez has simply not yet developed as a hitter, carrying a sub-.600 OPS in the upper minors.
This guy hasn’t been in the MLB for four years but it seems like every two months I hear that he’s signed with someone and will “try to return to the MLB.”
It’s funny how there’s an assortment of those AAAA players throughout the league. Emilio Bonifacio is probably my favorite of those kind of guys.
It is a job…..better than having these players on government assistance…….or sacking groceries
I personally knew a AAA player who backed up Hall of Fame second baseman Ryan Sandberg. He said he only continued to play to make money for college
Ryne*
He got called up by the Sox last season, but never came off the bench
oh yeah you’re correct — I had actually almost forgotten that until you said it. He was up with the big league club for a few days I believe… But just never got into a game. I think it might have been during an especially grueling stretch of games where Leon or Vasquez may also have been banged up and they were worried they might need another C but alas it didn’t happen.
Leon was on the paternity list
If you are willing to grind, catchers can last a while…you need quality catchers to catch the extra pitchers not on the active roster, while also needing depth at that position this season with the smaller player pool.
Royals need catching depth right now. No risk signing.
its actually his 27th birthday today. Happy birthday Oscar!
So who’s off the 60 man squad?
Major major I cant stress this enough,MAJOR signing. Now the domino’s will fall. Good work Royals
huh? I can’t even tell if this is some sort of inside joke that no one gets or you really think this is a good signing… I mean clearly it’s not a “Major, major, major” signing but it’s also not like it’s a bad signing so I’m not sure why the joke would be funny either.
He’s a troll. Just ignore.
The photo on the article makes this dude look like he’s a stud behind the plate.
I worked for Bowling Green in ’13 when he was there. Always thought he was solid defensively with some decent gap power, just not a high AVG or obp guy. Being rushed to the major with the Rule 5 probably stunted his growth a bit, but that’s what happens when your MiLB service time starts at 16.
I[‘s really bizarre that Hernandez has one season in the minors back in 2011 where he was not only ‘good’ but was flat out dominant. He batted over .400 and hit 21 HRs in FRK with an OBP over .500. Yet basically from that point on he’s been not just ‘not good’ but really kid of ‘terrible’ at the plate. I know 300 or so PA’s in FRK don’t mean all that much. But the dramatic difference in that season to the rest of his career is really quite strange. I mean to the best of my knowledge I’ve never seen another player who’s had such an amazing one-year run and since then has been a borderline .200 hitter. I know this isn’t overly relevant/all that exciting BUT it’s just really fascinating to see and just makes so little sense it’s always caught my attention since I first looked at his baseball reference page when he signed with the Red Sox a couple of seasons ago.
It would be nice to see him get regular playing time and see if he can play up to his potential.