On Monday, Marco Hernandez was non-tendered by the Boston Red Sox. A day later, the infielder was brought back on a new deal.
As mentioned in an article yesterday, choosing not to tender Marco Hernandez a contract left a big hole at second base on the Boston Red Sox roster. Well, the devastating wait is over as he is back less than 24 hours later.
Robert Murray was the first to report that the utility player was being brought back.
Source: #RedSox in agreement with free-agent infielder Marco Hernandez. They non-tendered him on Monday.
— Robert Murray (@ByRobertMurray) December 4, 2019
Alex Speier of the Boston Globe confirmed that Hernandez will be paid $650,000 next season on the new deal. This is only slightly less than what he was projected to earn in arbitration so the Red Sox aren’t saving much money by non-tendering him only to bring him back on a new deal. However, the terms of the new contract all the team to save a bit of salary if Hernandez is optioned to the minors.
Hernandez only played 61 games for the Red Sox from 2016 through 2018 seasons, missing lots of time due to injury. He was finally healthy during the 2019 season and well… it didn’t go great. He was 40 percent worse than league average as he hit for a 60 OPS+.
When Chaim Bloom chose not to tender him a contract, it was not a total shocker as he provided little production in his limited 2019 playing time.
Now that he is back with Boston it seems that the front office believes he can prove to be a better hitter if he gets more playing time. Could Hernandez be the heir to super-utility man to Brock Holt?
On the defensive side, both are versatile enough to play many positions. On offense, both are light-hitting, put the ball in play type hitters. Both have the above-average speed that makes them versatile offensively and defensively.
Overall, this move shows that the Red Sox won’t eliminate all of their depth in order to save some money on the payroll. While Hernandez doesn’t make or break the team, he is a nice depth piece that provides insurance if any infielder goes down with an injury. He is also a cheap alternative to the current free agent Holt.
It is good to see the young infielder coming back to Boston as he can be a much more useful player in a full-time role, rather than hopping on planes to go back and forth from Triple-A to MLB, like in 2019.