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Sometimes players come from out of nowhere. Sometimes they fall in your lap. Sometimes a player just needs a chance to prove himself. Alex Hernandez is one such player.
Hernandez was an undrafted FA signee inked to a minor league deal in April 1987 during the infancy of the current Freedom front office's tenure. Discovered by then lead scout Ramon Bonzales (now with the neighboring Pittsburgh organization) playing ball in a Puerto Rican semipro league at the age of 19, the early reports filed indicated he was just the kind of player that the new front office was in search of: incredibly raw, but hungry to improve if given an opportunity.
An incredible longshot to even show he belonged in professional baseball, Hernandez was promised nothing and given even less. He was immediately assigned to AA upon his signing and was challenged with a “sink or swim” directive as he played organizational soldier, filling a spot on the roster at a level he wasn’t quite ready for. The organization felt he was strong enough to handle it and Hernandez was just happy to be playing ball.
He bided his time and continued to impress with his raw tools despite the lack of quality results on the diamond. At the beginning of the ’89 season it became more clear that Hernandez was going to make it and the organization took steps to boost his confidence by having him spend a brief time in A ball where he immediately took off, posting an OPS+ of 186 in 54 games. A quick recall to AA didn’t slow him down as he posted an OPS+ of 157 the rest of the way.
Hernandez appeared to be on the fast track to a AAA promotion heading into 1990 when he suffered a severe ankle injury that cost him the first 3 months of the season. When he returned from the disabled list it was decided not to rush his progression after recovering from injury and to have him spend the remainder of the year at AA. He struggled a bit early with his timing and showed some side effects from being injured, but he finished out the year strong posting an OPS+ of 168 over 42 games.
The organization made the decision to have Hernandez start out this season at AA once again to make sure he was fully ready to continue his ascension up the organizational ladder and he quickly proved that he was ready to move up producing a slash line of .381 | .493 | .561 |1.053 through the first 3rd of the season. A foot injury cost him a little over a month, but as soon as he returned he was told to pack his bags and make his way to Trenton for the rest of the ’91 season. While he didn’t dominate there the way he had at AA, he certainly didn’t struggle either hitting .298 | .355 | .430 with an OPS+ of 124.
<style type="text/css">table.tableizer-table {border: 1px solid #CCC; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 10px;} .tableizer-table td {padding: 4px; margin: 3px; border: 1px solid #ccc;}.tableizer-table th {background-color: #8C1019; color: #FFF; font-weight: bold;}</style><table class="tableizer-table">
<tr class="tableizer-firstrow"><th></th><th>AB</th><th>R</th><th>H</th><th>2B</th><th>3B</th><th>HR</th><th>RBI</th><th>BB</th><th>K</th><th>TB</th><th>AVG</th><th>OBP</th><th>SLG</th><th>OPS</th></tr><tr><td>AA</td><td>223</td><td>40</td><td>85</td><td>17</td><td>1</td><td>7</td><td>42</td><td>46</td><td>47</td><td>125</td><td>.381</td><td>.493</td><td>.561</td><td>1.053</td></tr><tr><td>AAA</td><td>151</td><td>22</td><td>45</td><td>8</td><td>0</td><td>4</td><td>19</td><td>12</td><td>42</td><td>65</td><td>.298</td><td>.355</td><td>.430</td><td>.785</td></tr><tr><td>TOTAL</td><td>374</td><td>62</td><td>130</td><td>25</td><td>1</td><td>11</td><td>61</td><td>58</td><td>89</td><td>190</td><td>.348</td><td>.441</td><td>.508</td><td>.949</td></tr></table>
What’s Next:
We’re not projecting stardom for Hernandez, but considering where he started out he’s definitely a story we like to follow. He’s exactly the kind of guy people root for. He was never supposed to be anything and now he has an actual shot to one day contribute to a BLB roster. He’ll start the next year in AAA and depending on the direction the organization takes with the Freedom roster this offseason he could find himself getting a callup by the middle of the ’92 season.
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