After earning the starting second base job in Spring Training, Los Angeles Dodgers infielder Kiké Hernandez got off to a sizzling hot start to the season.
Since the calendar turned to May though, Hernandez has really struggled. In 30 games in March in April, he hit .258/.342/.505 with six home runs, 17 RBI, 26 strikeouts and 13 walks.
In 16 games in May though, that slashline has dropped all the way to .164/.224/.230 with one home run, five RBI, 20 strikeouts and only four walks.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts gave an explanation as to why he feels Hernandez has been struggling, and he just feels he needs to stop chasing pitches outside of the strikezone, as seen on SportsNet LA:
“He’s going out of the strikezone a little bit too much for me. The ball down below, the ball off the plate, the ball above the zone. I think that he’s trying like heck, he’s competing his tail off. The defense hasn’t been compromised but I think at the plate a little bit, he’s just trying too hard. I think that’s easier said than done not to try to get hits but where he was at in Spring Training, the start he got off to and at the end of April he was squaring the ball up as well as anybody and wasn’t getting results. I think that he became victim of trying to chase hits. That’s a tough road to go down. He’s working through it, he works as hard as anybody but I think it just boils down to he’s trying too hard.”
Hernandez had a pair of opposite-field base hits in the Dodgers’ two-game series against the Tampa Bay Rays this week, so he may be starting to show signs of taking a better approach at the plate to come out of his slump.
Since coming over to the Dodgers in 2015, Hernandez has been known to be a streaky hitter that goes through some really hot and really cold streaks. So Roberts has to be hoping that with hard work, he can come out of this slump and get back to producing at the level he was the first month of the season.
If he doesn’t though then it would not be surprising to see him return to his more traditional utility role as opposed to being penciled in the lineup at second base just about every day.
