Kiké Hernández reveals eye issue nearly cost him everything with Dodgers

By the 2024 All-Star break, Dodgers fan favorite Kiké Hernández was batting a paltry .191 with a .557 OPS and just 15 RBI in 71 games. The Dodgers were consistently batting him eighth or ninth in lineup by July and, despite fans' and the organization's fondness for him, he looked like an easy cut if the Dodgers were faced with a roster crunch — of which there were many, given how many players were on and off the IL.

But after the All-Star break, something seemed to spark to life. It took some time for him to get ramped up, but from July 20 to the last day of the regular season, he batted .274 with a .766 OPS, seven homers, and 27 RBI. His typical postseason prowess was also back in full force; he batted .294 with a .808 OPS from the NLDS through the World Series.

The only noticeable difference: he started wearing glasses.

A lot was made of the change when he started wearing them, but it actually worked, and those second-half and postseason performances are what bought him a ticket onto the 2025 roster.

He told Alanna Rizzo on Dodgers Territory, "[It] kinda saved my season, and who knows if it saved my career. There was a chance that I was a couple days away from getting DFA'ed last year."

Kiké Hernandez says eye issue had him on the verge of getting DFA'ed with Dodgers last year

The Dodgers roster was in constant flux in the summer, with players going onto and coming off of the IL consistently, as the team signed or traded for stopgap solutions. Hernández managed to weather them, thanks to improved optics. Sure, he wouldn't have been as deserving of a cut as other bench players (really just Chris Taylor), but it would've been relatively painless for the Dodgers from a financial standpoint; Hernández was on just a one-year, $4 million deal.

However, not only did Hernández keep himself alive through the 2024 season, but he also played his way back onto the team in 2025. After Hyeseong Kim was signed, Hernández and Gavin Lux's futures were immediately put in jeopardy, but the Dodgers let go of Lux and brought Hernández back for a ninth season.

He quickly made it look like a good decision for the Dodgers when he hit a massive homer in the second game of the Tokyo Series — more of a no-doubter than Tommy Edman's or even Shohei Ohtani's.

The moral of this story? Get your eyes checked, kids.