PEORIA, Ariz. — If Teoscar Hernandez was bitter about what transpired, he’s done an outstanding job of hiding it. There was no lashing out at the Mariners or the system used by Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association. That has never been part of his personality.
“I feel really good here,” he said. “The new people and new guys, new teammates have been treating me pretty well. Everybody here is so nice. I’m good. I don’t feel weird. I think we’re going to have a really good group, and we’re going to do some good things.”
Arriving to the team’s spring-training facility Sunday, meeting his new teammates and taking part in early voluntary workouts in preparation for participating for the Dominican Republic in the upcoming World Baseball Classic, Hernandez was gregarious and full of smiles.
Less than 48 hours earlier, Hernandez and his representatives from Republik Sports, including agent Rafa Nieves, were in St. Petersburg, Florida, to present all the reasons he deserved to earn a $16 million salary in 2023 in a salary arbitration hearing.
A representative from Proskauer, a law firm that has worked extensively with MLB in arbitration hearings, presented the Mariners’ case for wanting to pay Hernandez $14 million instead.
Was the hearing difficult?
“Not really,” he said. “Obviously, you go in there and you’re not gonna hear all good things. At least for me, it’s nothing that bothers me. It’s a business. I don’t have any issues with what they said. I’m not going to take it personal. I’m not going to feel bad. That’s in the past. I’m ready to focus on my season and help the team get to the World Series.”
Before the hearing, general manager Justin Hollander, who flew from the team’s complex to Florida to make sure the process wouldn’t be negative from the team’s side, spoke with Hernandez and Nieves, assuring both how much they valued him as a player.
“I wanted to make sure I was there,” Hollander said.
It was just the second arbitration hearing for the Mariners since Jerry Dipoto took over as general manager in 2016. The team lost their hearing with Adam Frazier last season, who received an $8 million salary instead of the $6.7 million offered by the Mariners.
It isn’t common behavior for baseball executives to be at arbitration hearings. But with the Mariners acquiring Hernandez from the Blue Jays this offseason in a trade that sent reliever Erik Swanson and left-handed pitching prospect Adam Macko back to Toronto, the last thing the organization wanted to do was start the relationship off with a contentious tone.
Hollander made it clear to the rep from Proksauer that the hearing should be handled simply and carefully not to offend Hernandez, who was in his final year of salary arbitration.
“There was no reason for it to become negative,” he said. “I had a good talk with Teo before the hearing and also after and I talked with Rafa as well.”
Following his All-Star 2021 season where he posted a .296/.346/524 slash line with 32 homers and 116 RBI in 143 games, Hernandez saw his salary jump from $4.325 million to $10.65 million in 2022.
He was looking for a similar raise in 2023 after posting a .267/.316/.491 slash line with 35 doubles, 25 homers and 77 RBI in 131 games in the 2022 season.
On Saturday, the arbiters — Mark Burstein, John Woods and Howard Edelman — ruled in favor of the Mariners.
Hernandez, who was already en route to Arizona to report to spring training, was told of the ruling and seemed unaffected.
“You know, $14 million is a good amount of money,” he said. “A lot of people get their feelings hurt in this, but not me. It’s not going to make any difference for how I feel about the organization.”
Hernandez has a similarly serious approach to spring workouts as his predecessor Mitch Haniger. While he’s quick to smile, particularly in conversations with fellow Dominicans Julio Rodriguez and Luis Castillo, he’s all business in drills.
“I just want to be myself and try to do the same thing that I was doing when I was in Houston and when I was in Toronto,” he said. “I’m trying to bring that positive energy to the clubhouse, to the field to my teammates. I want to get to know them and have good relationships, not just as a team or teammate, but as a family.”
There were some rumblings that the Mariners might try to make a contract-extension offer to the 30-year-old Hernandez before the arbitration hearing. But sources indicate that wasn’t necessarily true. It’s logical that the organization might wait to see how Hernandez performs before making such overtures.
It seems likely that Hernandez will test what is expected to be an underwhelming free-agent class this coming offseason. Shohei Ohtani headlines the group of free agents with Padres third baseman Manny Machado expected to opt out of his contract and become a free agent. Hernandez would be the next best hitter available in the class and could benefit from the demand for impact hitters.
Note
Manager Scott Servais said he wasn’t opposed to having both Cal Raleigh and Tom Murphy in a lineup at the same time with one of them at designated hitter.
“Everybody’s like, ‘Oh, you can’t DH your other catcher,’” Servais said. “It happens. We’ve done it in the past. I will be open to it again. It kind of depends. You want them going good with the bat. You’ve got to be able to contribute offensively and maybe they’re in one of their hot streaks and you just don’t want to lose the presence in the lineup.”