Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images
Los Angeles Dodgers star Teoscar Hernandez recently revealed in an interview that he almost quit baseball before making it big in MLB. Good thing he didn’t, because he just signed a three-year, $66 million contract after winning the World Series.
Hernandez made this startling admission during a sit-down with the Abriendo Sports podcast. He explained that between the ages of 15 and 18 he traveled from the Dominican Republic to the United States to try out for Major League Baseball teams, participating in more than 100 events here.
At the age of 18, with not a single MLB team showing any interest in him, he almost called it quits. He had been saddled with the “tweener” label – not quite fast enough or strong enough and not a solid fit for any single position on the field.
He did finally get an offer from the Houston Astros, who gave him a $20,000 signing bonus in 2011, but it wasn’t until 2016 that he actually got to play in a Major League Baseball game.
In 41 games with the Astros in 2016, he batted just .230 with four home runs while striking out 28 times in 100 at-bats. Then, after just one game with Houston in 2017 he was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays. He again didn’t play much, seeing action in a total of 27 games that year, but he did manage to stroke eight home runs in just 95 at-bats.
It was that sort of power that landed him a starting job with the Blue Jays in 2018 and he went to hit 121 more home runs over the next five years. After spending a year with the Seattle Mariners in 2023, Teoscar Hernandez signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers as a free agent and all he did was hit 33 bombs with 99 RBI and win a World Series. This year, so far, he is leading the National League in RBI.
Hernandez, who almost quit baseball and made less than $2 million total from 2011 to 2020, is now earning $24.5 million in 2025 and will make another $25.5 million 2026. He is also mentoring other young players like Dodgers’ second-year outfielder Andy Pages who told the media on Wednesday, “Teo’s always helping. He’s spent a lot of time in the big leagues, and he’s always paying attention to what I’m doing, trying to help me with everything. I’m thankful for that. He’s helped me a lot to this point.”
@abriendosports 🗣️ "Yo le hice tryouts a los 30 equipos de Grandes Ligas y SÓLO tuve 1 oferta" 👀😳 Teoscar Hernández nos contó sobre su trayecto en ligas menores y todos los obstáculos que tuvo que superar para llegar a las Grandes Ligas 🙌🏽 Contenido COMPLETO en nuestro canal de YouTube ▶️
Full interview…