Teoscar Hernández injury sparks panic as Dodgers offense takes another hit

On Monday night against the Marlins, the Dodgers made a quiet substitution in the bottom of the fourth that brought Chris Taylor in for Teoscar Hernández, who had already supplied LA's first run of the night on an RBI double and singled in his next at-bat. Stephen Nelson and Eric Karros, who were on the mic for SportsNet LA that night, couldn't immediately offer insight into the move, but it was already enough to inspire dread in Dodgers fans.

Apart from the fact that Hernández had the best offensive season of his career with the Dodgers in 2024, he also managed to remain healthy for the entire year, which was huge for a Dodgers lineup that lost Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman, and Max Muncy for not insignificant amounts of time.

This year, he's only been out of the starting lineup twice due to a stomach bug, and heleads Dodgers qualified players in home runs (tied with Shohei Ohtani), RBI, average, and slugging. Re-signing him was imperative for the front office in the offseason, but they've gotten more than they paid for so far this year.

The Dodgers were quick to provide some context into Hernández's early departure, and it wasn't good. He left with hamstring tightness, and Dave Roberts said after the game that he would undergo an MRI. He characterized the injury as "a little concerning."

Teoscar Hernández pulled from Dodgers' opener vs. Marlins, set to undergo MRI

Roberts has missed the mark on a couple of injury updates lately; he predicted that Tyler Glasnow's injury "wasn't long-term" right before the Dodgers shut Glasnow down for 10-14 days. He went back-and-forth on Tommy Edman's status before the Dodgers moved him to the 10-day IL.

Edman and Hernández have easily been the Dodgers' most valuable players so far this season, with Edman turning into a homer machine overnight and even leading the team in homers for a few weeks in April. Although the Dodgers are still optimistic that Edman will come off of the IL as soon as his 10 days are up, bad news on Hernández's MRI would mean that we'll get at least a week without both of them, and maybe even longer without one or the other.

Fingers and toes are crossed that Hernández's scans come back clean (even though that also isn't a guarantee he'll spring back into action, if Blake Snell's recent updates are anything to go off of). The Dodgers already have a whopping 13 players on the IL, and they really cannot afford to lose Hernández from the lineup.