Teoscar Hernandez contract demands give Ross Atkins a golden opportunity to right previous wrong

After the 2022 season, the Toronto Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins made the controversial decision to trade Teoscar Hernandez to the Seattle Mariners. While the deal was criticized heavily at the time, it did make some sense. Hernandez was going to enter his final year of club control, and the Jays acquired a controllable reliever - Erik Swanson - to address their shaky bullpen.

At first glance, the deal actually wasn't too bad. Hernandez had a bit of a down year in Seattle, and Swanson was an integral piece of Toronto's bullpen. This past season, though, the narrative shifted. Hernandez thrived after signing a one-year deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Swanson struggled so mightily to the point where he was demoted to Triple-A. To make matters worse, the Jays offense struggled mightily, and the team won just 74 games.

Well, after all of this time, Hernandez is back on the open market, and after settling for a one-year deal last offseason, is looking to get paid. It was assumed once the World Series wrapped up that Hernandez would ink a longer-term deal to stay with the Dodgers. He said himself that he wanted to be there, and the Dodgers would presumably want him to stay as well given the year he had. The Winter Meetings have passed, though, and no deal has been reached. In fact, one doesn't appear close at all, according to Doug McKain of Dodgers Nation.

"Hernández wants to re-sign with the Dodgers —as he has for the last few months— but the two sides remain apart on the average annual value and the signing bonus, per a source. Moreover, Hernández does not want any deferrals in his contract."

The Dodgers are his first choice, yet the team and player aren't close when it comes to anything in his contract. Well, this gives Atkins a golden opportunity to step up and bring Hernandez back to Toronto.

For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB offseason.

Ross Atkins is being gifted a golden opportunity to bring Teoscar Hernandez back to Toronto

Hernandez isn't a player without faults. He strikes out a ton, and doesn't have the best defensive reputation. He does, however, provide a ton of offensive value, and that's something that the Jays could really use.

Hernandez averaged 24 home runs and 70 RBI in his five full seasons with the Blue Jays. Both would've ranked second on the team behind Vladimir Guerrero Jr. this past season, with a sizable gap between him and the player ranked third in each category. He hit as many as 32 home runs and drove in as many as 119 runs in a single season with the Blue Jays.

This past season saw the 32-year-old set a career-high with 33 home runs for the Dodgers, and he drove in 99 runs. He was an All-Star, won a Silver Slugger, and even received some MVP votes.

Is he Juan Soto? No, but after the Jays missed out on him and Max Fried, it'd behoove Ross Atkins to do something. Yes, Hernandez would be pricey and would cost a draft pick to sign, but he's also arguably the best bat out there in free agency. He's close with Guerrero - a player that the Jays would love to extend - and would fill an obvious need given the team's lack of power. To top it all off, he'd come back to Toronto, a place he really should've never had to leave.

If the Dodgers won't pony up to bring Hernandez back, Atkins should do so before they change their minds.