While the Los Angeles Dodgers have had a lot of success in recent years, winning seven straight National League West titles, one important piece has evaded them as they still have not won a World Series since 1988.
The team made the Fall Classic twice in the past three years but fell short in both 2017 and 2018, to the two teams that have been accused of sign-stealing in the Houston Astros and the Boston Red Sox. While Major League Baseball’s investigation into the Red Sox is still ongoing, the Astros have already been found guilty and were penalized accordingly.
The Dodgers obviously cannot change what happened in the past, which is a sentiment many players expressed over the weekend. Kiké Hernandez even took it a step further. “It’s 2020, man,” he said at Dodgers FanFest.
“It’s a new decade. The ’20s is going to be the Dodgers’ decade.”
Hernandez is heading into his sixth season with the Dodgers and will likely be their primary utility man again in 2020. He is coming off another year in which he played all over the diamond, hitting .237/.304/.411 with 17 home runs and a career-high 64 RBI in 130 games.
He was one of the most outspoken players at FanFest about the Astros’ sign-stealing scandal, although after speaking his piece, deemed that it’s time to move on.
“It hurts. I don’t think it hurts more now than it did two or three years ago when we lost the series,” Hernandez said. “You know, it is what it is. We’re ready just to play baseball, put that thing past us and win a World Series this year. What happened happened already and it is what it is, the commissioner made his decision, blah blah blah.”
In addition to Hernandez, the Dodgers return most of their key players from recent seasons. They also made some additions in the form of a trio of pitchers with upside in Blake Treinen, Alex Wood and Jimmy Nelson to help in the pursuit of a championship.
“We’re ready to go,” Hernandez concluded. “We still have a really good team, we added some pieces that are going to help us get deeper into October and back to the World Series. Hopefully we come out on top this year.”
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