Potential Supervillain Arc

 Can't say I didn't see this one coming.

Enrique Hernandez was never my favorite member of the perennial Dodgers competitive teams. There were your crowd-pleasers like Kershaw and Bellinger, your power-hitters like Pederson and Muncy, your WAR guys like Turner and Seager, and your young, fun pitchers like Buehler, Gonsolin and May. Hernandez always seemed like the sort of rascal underneath them all. 

Like, he's never hit more than .256 in a full season, and he was always relied on for little hits and RBI damage stuff, but he was always a sneaky, mischievous type that would never really go away, and would always be reliable for a clutch hit when you were least expecting it. It was the sort of mentality, combined with the sort of wild personality, that was less befitting of a heroic team and more befitting of a villainous team like the Red Sox or Rays.

And so, Enrique Hernandez joining the Sox this offseason and being slotted in as their primary second baseman makes too much sense. On one hand, him and Alex Verdugo, another big-personality Dodgers standout, are reunited. On the other, he's surrounded by a whole lot more sneaky types, like Rafael Devers, Christian Vazquez, Michael Chavis, Nate Eovaldi and Bobby Dalbec. He's definitely in the right place.

But is Boston a good place for a guy who just won the WS to end up? I mean, like at Verdugo- he went from being a fun outfield bat in a crowded Dodgers outfield to one of the biggest standouts of the Sox lineup. Could this also repeat for Hernandez? The Sox are looking to improve on last season, but are now without Andrew Benintendi and Jackie Bradley, meaning their entire Killer B outfield from 2018 is now gone. Their outfield now consists of Verdugo, Hunter Renfroe and Yairo Muñoz. With the exception of Verdugo, it's not exactly a league-caliber combination. Though, admittedly, the infield of Dalbec-Kiké-Bogaerts-Devers is pretty cool though, especially if Kiké Hernandez is compatible with the regulars. 

Still, the piecemeal quality of the rotation and the outfield is making me a bit skeptical that the Sox will be up there with the Yanks, Jays and Rays this year. It could happen. But this looks more like a rebuild than a competing roster.

[Final Note- it's come to my attention that Baseball Reference dot com has fully banked on referring to him as Kiké Hernandez rather than Enrique. So to any sportswriters out there, I implore you, I beseech you...please remember that tilde over the e in Kiké please. Goes for you too, Meyers Leonard.]

Coming Tomorrow- They made it to the postseason last year. Now everyone thinks they'll be back in last. Their top starter seems to have other ideas.