Here's Why the Teoscar Hernandez Comments About the Seattle Mariners Are So Disappointing
On Monday, we published an article that made reference to comments by Los Angeles Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez.
The article was written by Alden Gonzalez of ESPN and included a line from Hernandez about his time with the Seattle Mariners in 2023.
Hernandez said that the 2023 M's were a really good and really talented team, but he also said that they were missing something. He said he felt that team played as individuals and not as a group. The M's went 88-74 and missed the playoffs on the second to last day of the season.
Hernandez had been acquired via trade before the 2023 season.
Teoscar Hernández says the 2023 Mariners missed the playoffs because they played as individuals, not as one group. https://t.co/R2nJimSTtH pic.twitter.com/xP3kZAjBeL
— Mariner Muse (@MarinerMuse) October 28, 2024
What's so disappointing about that notion of playing as individuals is that the M's had the veteran pieces in place to make that not the case and still couldn't jive well enough.
Make no mistake about it, a singular veteran voice has helped the Mariners a lot in the last few years. It was Carlos Santana in 2022 and it was Justin Turner (after arriving via trade) in 2024.
The idea of the veteran presence is real, but the 2023 M's had enough collective veteran voices that should have been able to bring the idea of a team concept out of the roster. Kolten Wong and AJ Pollock began the year on the team and played prominent roles early. Hernandez himself was an eight-year vet who could have provided some of that leadership also. J.P. Crawford and Ty France were several-year vets that were established in Seattle. They could have and should have had a voice that resonated in the clubhouse as well. They also had a manager in Scott Servais who had been with the team for eight years at that point.
But nothing apparently worked, at least to Hernandez's liking. And now he's one win away from a World Series with the Dodgers.
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