{"id":471192,"date":"2026-02-16T02:42:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T02:42:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471192\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T02:42:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T02:42:08","slug":"dodgers-notes-hernandez-phillips-diaz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/471192\/","title":{"rendered":"Dodgers Notes: Hernandez, Phillips, Diaz"},"content":{"rendered":"

Enrique Hernandez<\/a> played through most of the 2025 season with a torn muscle in his left (non-throwing) arm, and he underwent surgery to address the problem back in November.\u00a0 Hernandez suggested during an offseason interview with Adam Ottavino (hat tip to MLB.com\u2019s Sonja Chen<\/a>) that his recovery process would cost him \u201ca month or two\u201d of the regular season, but Dodgers GM Brandon Gomes<\/a> suggested a slightly longer timeline, telling The Athletic\u2019s Fabian Ardaya<\/a> and other reporters today that the team expected Hernandez closer to midseason.<\/p>\n

The status of Hernandez\u2019s elbow didn\u2019t stop Los Angeles from re-signing<\/a> the utilityman to a one-year, $4.5MM free agent contract.\u00a0 Hernandez hasn\u2019t yet been placed on the 60-day injured list, so the Dodgers may think there is still some chance he might be able to return within the first two months of regular-season action.\u00a0 Gomes noted that Hernandez will soon start swinging, which should provide some data on the 34-year-old\u2019s progress.<\/p>\n

Some might argue that Hernandez only needs to be ready for October, given his history as a postseason performer.\u00a0 The veteran has a modest .236\/.305\/.403 slash line over 4152 plate appearances and 12 Major League seasons, but his postseason numbers (.272\/.339\/.486 in 328 PA) have made Hernandez a key part of the Dodgers\u2019 three championship teams over the last six years.<\/p>\n

Gomes also touched on Evan Phillips<\/a>\u2019 recovery from Tommy John surgery, and his comparison to Phillips\u2019 return as\u00a0 akin to a trade deadline acquisition suggests that the reliever should be back around late July.\u00a0 Since Phillips had his surgery in late May 2025, the timeline tracks with the usual TJ rehab period.\u00a0 Phillips himself told Jack Harris of the Los Angeles Times<\/a> that he is aiming to be back with the Dodgers by August at the latest, with an eye towards being fully ready for playoff baseball.<\/p>\n

L.A. non-tendered Phillips in November, but re-signed the former closer to a one-year, $6.5MM deal earlier this week.\u00a0 It\u2019s a fairly steep price for a pitcher who may pitch around a third of the regular season, yet the Dodgers can obviously afford it, and are counting on Phillips to regain his past status as a key leverage reliever.\u00a0 Phillips posted a 2.14 ERA over 184 2\/3 innings for Los Angeles from 2022-25, recording 45 saves during his time as the team\u2019s closer.<\/p>\n

Unsurprisingly for a pitcher coming off a Tommy John procedure, Phillips\u2019 market was pretty quiet, as the Red Sox were the only team publicly known to have interest this winter.\u00a0 Phillips told Harris that he had \u201cplenty of teams kick the tires and check in\u201d during the offseason, and talks with the Dodgers only started to reignite in early February.<\/p>\n

Phillips won\u2019t be returning to the closer role upon his return, both due to his long layoff and the fact that the Dodgers have now signed Edwin Diaz<\/a> to handle ninth-inning duties.\u00a0 The three-time All-Star became yet another marquee Dodgers signing when he inked a three-year, $69MM deal<\/a> back in December, and the $23MM average annual value of his contract is a new record for a relief pitcher.<\/p>\n

Diaz headed to Los Angeles after a successful six-year run with the Mets, and many expected New York to again re-sign the closer.\u00a0 The Mets reportedly made Diaz a three-year, $66MM offer, but Diaz accepted the Dodgers\u2019 offer without giving the Mets \u201ca chance to counter,\u201d MLB.com\u2019s Anthony DiComo<\/a> writes.\u00a0 A source tells DiComo that New York was open to spending beyond $66MM to retain Diaz, but another source \u201csaid Diaz\u2019s camp didn\u2019t expect the Mets to increase their offer in a meaningful way,\u201d which is why the closer settled on the Dodgers\u2019 $69MM contract.<\/p>\n

Diaz\u2019s decision struck Mets owner Steve Cohen as \u201cperplexing,\u201d as he told team broadcaster Howie Rose in an interview earlier this week.\u00a0 \u201cObviously, it\u2019s a personal decision on his part, and I thought we made a pretty respectable bid.\u201d\u00a0 Diaz didn\u2019t directly respond to Cohen\u2019s statement, but told reporters yesterday that \u201cI think the Dodgers did a great job recruiting me. At the end of the day, I chose to be here.\u00a0 I have a lot of respect for the Mets organization, players, staff, ownership. They treated me really good. I don\u2019t have anything bad to say about them. But at the end of the day, I\u2019m here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Enrique Hernandez played through most of the 2025 season with a torn muscle in his left (non-throwing) arm,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":334222,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[12947,168855,107055,363,99],"class_list":{"0":"post-471192","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-edwin-diaz","9":"tag-enrique-hernandez","10":"tag-evan-phillips","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471192","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471192"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471192\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/334222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471192"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471192"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471192"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}