It’s been a while since the last time, as it tends to be during the season when most of the information is conveyed in either the Game Threads or Game Recaps, but there’s been a couple of interesting profiles, some rather obvious stats stuff, prospect updates, and an interesting new baserunning wrinkle.
======
The Athletic: A profile of Teoscar Hernandez and his son Teo, who has autism. Teoscar speaks about his pride in Teo, his new gear dedicated to him, and spreading awareness about autism.
The diagnosis has opened Hernández’s eyes. According to the National Library of Medicine, in Hernández’s home country of the Dominican Republic, “access to information and critical data is more difficult to attain, or even non-existent” in autism cases, which in turn has made it difficult to get an accurate read on the total diagnoses.That has only inspired Hernández further to spread awareness.“Now that I’m around my son, I’ve been around activities with autistic people,” Hernández said. “I realized that I know a lot of people that maybe are on the spectrum and they don’t even know.”
It’s also mentioned that the Dodgers are doing their best to foster a welcoming environment for Teo, and that they have experience in doing that thanks to RJ Peete, who has autism and has been an employee since 2016.
The players’ family room at Dodger Stadium is stocked with Teo’s favorites, as the team has looked for ways to help him and the rest of the Hernández family feel at home at the ballpark.“Anything that we need for my family, for the kids, for Teo,” Hernández said. “They even bring the pizza and everything that he actually likes to the daycare that we have at the stadium, so he can feel part of the group. That’s something that we’re gonna be so grateful for.“This organization has changed our lives in a different way. Big time.”
The Athletic: Miguel Rojas had been a veteran leader for the Dodgers before he became a World Series hero, but last year he needed help of his own, which is when Enrique Hernandez came to the rescue.
“I wanted to change the mentality, because if he didn’t, he was going to be on the way out,” Hernández explained. “Not because it was going to happen, but because he was going to do that to himself. I basically told him, ‘I’ve been where you are right now, and it’s not a good way to live. If you put a stop to it, and you say the season starts tomorrow and that’s the mentality you bring in each and every day, you’re going to be much more enjoyable.’”
Rojas has always felt like a future coach, but between this and giving Yoshinobu Yamamoto a pep talk during the 2024 postseason, maybe Enrique is a future coach as well.
——
MLB: Some guy named Mike Petriello pointed out that Max Muncy is something like the fourth-best hitter in baseball over the last year, and that he’s hitting fastballs very hard.
You can really see it when it comes to fastballs, too, and that’s what the swing changes were intended to improve. Since the start of 2025, only Judge and Kyle Schwarber have a better slugging percentage than Muncy on four-seamers and sinkers. Two years ago, Muncy’s hard-hit rate against fastballs was 48%; this year, it’s 66% – which is fifth behind Oneil Cruz, James Wood, Rice, and Fernando Tatis Jr.
Pitcher List: Justin Wrobleski was a part of their recent Is It Legit? feature, and he unsurprisingly falls into the Not Legit side.
Verdict: Not legit. With virtually no swing-and-miss in his game, he just doesn’t have the stuff to keep up this level of performance. His .205 BABIP is doing essentially all of the heavy lifting here, and it’s bound to collapse in a disastrous way soon enough.
All of this is true, but it’s rather obvious to say a sub-2 ERA is unsustainable. It’s more interesting to think about where he could regress to, and if he’s an innings eater at even the high-3 to low-4 ERA range that his other peripherals indicate he could be, then that’s more than great for this specific Dodgers team.
——
TJStats: One Dodgers prospect that is impressing early is Charles Davalan, who’s answered concerns about his pop with the metrics he’s posting so far.
Charles Davalan has already made me question how he fell to the Dodgers at pick 41 in the draft. The Canadian outfielder out of Arkansas was known for his plus hit tool and quick legs, with concerns about his power limiting his draft stock. He has quickly put those qualms to rest, launching 4 HR in the early going and popping a 111 mph max exit velocity — right around MLB average. Supporting those power gains are brilliant contact rates that give him a buoyant floor if the slug fades.
Baseball Prospectus: Aesthetically speaking, I love Kendall George‘s speed-based game, but it’s unique for a reason and the odds are against him. Still, he’s started shockingly well at AA and is starting to be taken seriously now at least.
There’s next to zero pop here, almost intentionally, with a slashing, pesky, annoying-more-than-dangerous swing and approach at the plate. George will even do the three-quarter swing into a running start from the left side Ichiro used from time to time back in the day (though George’s hit tool may not be quite as efficacious as Ichiro’s proved to be).George will battle with two strikes and will earn his way on via the walk with frequency. His defense in center today is closer to average than you would hope for someone with the wheels he has, but I tend to be a believer that given enough time and reps, elite speed turns into elite defense more often than not, and George is still only 21 so I’ll still throw him in that bucket. All of the above will need to work out, more or less, for George to make an impact in the bigs, because he has very little chance of hitting left-handed arms at that level, as he buckles and gives up fast on left-on-left breaking balls in zone. If the glove turns plus, which I’d bet on, and he can OBP .350, which I’d bet against, he’s a good strong-side platoon center fielder for several years. If he can’t do either or both of those, George becomes relegated to a baserunning fiend as the 26th man rostered.
Yeah, that’s about where I am. Still work to be done and still an uphill battle, but … things are moving in the right direction.
There’s also notes on Ching-Hsien Ko.
Baseball America: Speaking of notes, Ian Cundall visited the A-ball Ontario Tower Buzzers and had notes on Chase Harlan, Joendry Vargas, Ko, Jaron Elkins, Anson Aroz, Mairoshendrick Martinus, Hyun-Seok Jang, Brady Smith, and Luis Carias.
In this outing, Jang showed off his four-pitch mix with pitches moving in all directions. His fastball sat 92-94 mph over his four innings of work. It had cut-ride shape, but he struggled to command the pitch in the zone and only generated two whiffs with it. It was effective when he could elevate it, but he struggled to consistently do that. Jang’s velocity is down from where he was in the past, sitting in the mid 90s and touching 97 mph.Jang’s changeup was his primary whiff pitch, generating three in the outing. It had the highest whiff rates of any of his pitches in 2025, but he really struggled to locate it. His control of the pitch looked much improved in this outing, and he was willing to throw it to hitters from both sides of the plate. It came in at 84-86 mph with deceptive arm speed and late fade at its best.Jang also showed an 86-89 mph cut-slider and a 73-75 mph curveball. His slider had short, horizontal break, while his curveball had substantial vertical break. He used his slider in any count, and it was effective at generating weak contact, while his curveball was more of a change-of-pace pitch. It was effective in sequence and when he varied the cadence in his delivery.Jang has a deep arsenal and starter’s build, but needs to make strides with his command and control. If he can regain his velocity, he looks like someone who could push for Top 30 consideration once again.
Aside from stuff like the report on Jang, the suggestion that Martinus try pitching was particularly interesting.
——
Foundations On The Field: Teams are getting increasingly aggressive on the basepaths, including with the size of their leads. As a result, teams are also getting increasingly creative in their ways of positioning their fielders.
At the same time, lead distances have crept upward over the last few seasons. That’s not accidental. It’s the natural response to an environment that rewards aggression. And now teams are starting to push back more deliberate, more creative in how they control the run game, both on the mound and at first base.Defensively, you’re seeing a subtle but meaningful shift: first basemen playing off the bag more often, not just holding runners but positioning themselves to tag further from the base on pickoff attempts. The idea is simple if runners are going to take more ground, meet them there.
That has led to more frequent and creative pick-off plays, which has thusly led to a bit of chaos in terms of rule enforcement, as the article showcases.
======
Finally, a farewell to Ron Cervenka of Think Blue LA, who is one of the OG Dodgers bloggers and is shutting down his site due to health concerns. Made me think about when that day might come for Dodgers Digest as well.
