Toronto Blue Jays Call Up Teoscar Hernandez
Josh Donaldson has been placed on the 10 day disabled list and taking his place on the roster will be September 2017 sensation Teoscar Hernandez.
Hernandez will be starting in left field tonight. The left field platoon of Curtis Granderson and Steve Pearce will now become a DH platoon while Kendrys Morales is on the DL. I expect Teoscar will be playing everyday while he is with the Blue Jays.
Hernandez captured the attention of Blue Jays fans by smashing 6 home runs in 6 games last September. He did so while also striking out 37.9%, a rate that would have led all of baseball had he played enough to qualify. Since coming over from the Astros he has seen his flyball rate and strikeout rate increase, while also becoming more pull heavy. He appears to be trading power for swing and miss and so far the results have been promising. In 4 games at AAA this year he has continued that trend by striking out 38.9% and smashing 2 home runs.
It will be interesting to see if this extreme hitting profile is sustainable over the long term. Among the top 10 qualified batters for strikeout rate last season, Teoscar's chase rate was better than only Joey Gallo and Tim Beckham while his swinging strike rate was better than only Joey Gallo. Teoscar's hitting profile bears a striking resemblance to Joey Gallo's except Teoscar walks at about half the rate Gallo does.
Most power hitters who strikeout a lot also take a lot of walks. This keeps their OBP in a respectable range. Players like Randal Grichuk who don't walk often are more susceptible to slumps and their overall offensive production is limited. Despite being one of the better power hitters throughout his career, Grichuk has managed to be just 5% better than league average at the plate due to his OBP issues. With strikeouts becoming more common, we are starting to see more players make high strikeout rates work. Will Teoscar be one of them? Right now, Teoscar's profile is looking a lot like that of Randal Grichuk. It's a fine player, easily above average once you factor in defence and base running, and one you can win with, but not the type of guy you build your team around. If Teoscar hopes to become a true middle-of-the-order bat he will likely have to see improvements in either his strikeouts or walks, preferably both.
Players like Teoscar fascinate me because they force me to question how I evaluate players. Will he start to walk more often as pitchers try to avoid his power and he learns not to chase so often? Will he cut down on his swing and miss to better utilize his elite batted ball skills? Or will he continue to struggle with strike zone judgement and making contact and be exposed by major league pitchers? A lot of people will simply look at his traditional stats and project him for stardom, but there is so much more going on beneath the results. Some good, some not so much.
For now, it looks like Teoscar will get at least a couple weeks to show what he can do against Major League pitching. When Donaldson or Morales return from the DL the team may be facing a roster crunch. Since Teoscar is the only player among Grichuk, Granderson, Pearce, and Morales with options, he is the most likely to be sent down. However, if Teoscar is hitting like he did last September and this spring, it will make for a tough decision about whether they can justify sending him down again.
