Dodgers Notes: LA Signs 2 Players, Massive Teoscar Hernández Update, Juan Soto Shatters Shohei Ohtani’s Contract

The Los Angeles Dodgers hit the ground running in Dallas on the eve of the annual Major League Baseball Winter Meetings signing free-agent outfielder Michael Conforto to a one-year deal and reportedly bringing back right-handed reliever Blake Treinen on a two-year agreement.

Los Angeles is also nearing a new contract with outfielder Teoscar Hernández, according to sources of Dodgers Nation’s Noah Camras and Doug McKain. While Hernández has expressed a strong desire to stay with the team, the delay reportedly stems from the Dodgers’ side. No specific timeline for finalizing the deal has been set.

The weekend wrapped up with Juan Soto signing a massive 15-year, $765 million contract with the New York Mets passing Dodgers two-way star Shohei Ohtani for the richest contract in sports.

Here’s all the latest Dodgers news and stories: 

Conforto leaves a home ballpark in SF where he struggled, and joins a Dodgers outfield that got very little production from its lefty hitters in 2024

The Dodgers have added Michael Conforto, or at least agreed to terms with the deal not yet officially finalized. But he likely won’t be the last outfielder they bring in this offseason (or maybe even this week). What’s left is key to the Conforto addition in more ways than one.

First, the long-anticipated reunion with Teoscar Hernández should still happen. It was wise for Hernández’s camp to wait until after Juan Soto signed to make a decision, as the handful of suitors who missed out on Soto can now shift attention to Hernández or Anthony Santander, the two best outfielders remaining on the free agent market.

Signing Conforto “isn’t expected to take the Dodgers out of the running for Hernández,” reported Jack Harris and Mike DiGiovanna at the Los Angeles Times. Similar sentiments were also reported by Fabian Ardaya at The Athletic and Mark Feinsand of MLB.com.

There will be time for adding others, but for now let’s look at what Conforto brings to the Dodgers.

In many ways, he’s akin to Hernández, though they bat on opposite sides of the plate. Hernández joined the Dodgers after struggling in his pitcher-friendly home park in Seattle in 2023, hitting just .217/.263/.380 with an 81 wRC+ at T-Mobile Park, compared to .295/.344/.486 with a 126 wRC+ on the road. He won a Silver Slugger Award with the Dodgers, and led National League outfielders in home runs (33) and RBI (99) in 2024.

“Everything comes down to confidence at home plate,” Hernández said last January during his introductory Zoom call after signing with the Dodgers. “If you watched my numbers, there was a big gap between playing at home [in Seattle] and playing away. It was more getting confidence at home, trying to do the same things I did when playing on the road.”

During his two-year deal with the Giants, Conforto hit .225/.308/.353 with an 88 wRC+ at Oracle Park in San Francisco and .248/.332/.471 with a 119 wRC+ on the road. In 2024, 17 of his 20 home runs were hit away from home.

Batted-ball data suggested Conforto was a better hitter than his final numbers showed in 2024, when he hit .237/.309/.450 with a 112 wRC+. Per Baseball Savant, Conforto’s expected batting average was .257, with a .479 expected slugging percentage. His xwOBA was also .350, compared to his actual wOBA of .327.

Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic, who covered Conforto for the last two seasons, said “Somebody was going to make a smart investment in Michael Conforto and I’m not surprised to see it’s the Dodgers.”