If you look back at one of my earlier posts you’ll be reminded that Teoscar Hernández, better known as Teo, is one of my favorite baseball players. Thus, you can imagine I was very excited when he won the Home Run Derby this year. I’ve learned a lot about Teo so I thought I would spend this post introducing you all to the one-of-a-kind guy he is.

In 2011 at 18 years old Teo signed from the Dominican Republic to the Houston Astros. He said he tried 3 years to get signed and the only offer he got was from the Astros at 18. Teo said in an interview that signing from the Dominican Republic to the MLB you really have to sign at 18 or younger. He reported that your chances of signing from the DR to the MLB after 18 are less than 10%, though I couldn’t find any actual data to back up that statistic. When asked what he was considering doing if he was unable to sign that year he said that a lot of his family members are engineers so he would have gone to university to become an engineer. Like most players he played a couple years in the minors. When his manager called him to tell him he was being called up to the majors he didn’t recognize the number so he didn’t pick up the first time but picked up the second time when the same number called him for the second time in a row. I find that kind of crazy though. Sometimes I don’t pick up a number if I don’t recognize it even if they call multiple times in a row so imagine if he didn’t pick up that call and he missed his call up to the majors, that would have sucked!

For several years Teo played for the Blue Jays on a team near and dear to my heart as it had several of my favorite players. In this time Teo really developed and had some cool moments. His mentor growing up was Vladimir Guerrero Sr., so playing with Vladimir Guerrero Jr. he not only got the opportunity to meet his biggest mentor, but is now close friends with his childhood mentor. I can’t even begin to imagine how cool that is. During his time with the Blue Jays he also earned his nickname Mr. Seeds. The Jays at the time didn’t have a home run celebration but Teo noted that they always had an abundance of sunflower seeds, so he decided to dump seeds on the head of any player who hit a home run when they came back to the dugout, giving him his nickname. If you watch Dodgers games now you’ll notice that he has continued this seed dumping practice to this day. If you look at the picture below you can see the sunflower seeds on his head.

Here are some other random facts about Teo: first, he did say that Josh Donaldson was a mentor for him when he first started playing. As Josh Donaldson is one of the first players on my hate list, this mentor fact is one I was very disappointed to learn. Second, he says that the funniest teammate he’s ever played with is Lourdes Gurriel Jr. followed by Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Santiago Espinal. Lourdes is my favorite player and Vladdy and Espinal are part of my favorite Blue Jays team so this fact is one I was very pleased by. Third and final, Teo says that the Max Scherzer is the toughest pitcher for him to face. Fun fact about Max Scherzer is he has a rare condition called Heterochromia Idris, meaning his eyes are different colors, his left one brown and right one blue.

This year Teo signed a one year contract with the Dodgers. He said that his decision came down to the Dodgers vs the Red Sox and he chose the Dodgers because they offered him a better deal. The Dodgers were the first team also to promise him the ability to play every day. Like Shohei Ohtani he deferred some of his contract to later so that the Dodgers had the ability to build the best team possible this year. However, he did say he loves the Sox and his favorite stadium is Fenway and his least favorite stadium is Yankee stadium so clearly he is meant to play for the Sox. I will continue holding out hope that next year when he has free agency again he will sign with us!