If you have a bag of sunflower seeds, throw it to the sky.
Teo is back.
Break out three giant claps, a dazzling smile and a deafening scream.
Teo is back.
The Dodgers’ heartbeat still pumps. The Dodgers’ soul still stirs. The Dodgers are still the Dodgers.
A front office that respects the team culture while listening to its fans made certain of this Friday when the Dodgers agreed to re-sign Teoscar Hernández to a three-year, $66-million contract, keeping last season’s championship hero where he belongs.
In the dugout, showering fellow home-run hitters with sunflower seeds. In the clubhouse, smoothing the path for Shohei Ohtani. And, of course, at the plate, delivering huge hits all summer capped by season-tilting drives in the National League Division Series and World Series.
Teo is back, and your sigh is as big as his personality, and your relief is as palpable as one of his late-inning swings.
Because, admit it, you were worried. You were even worse than worried.
After the final bus had sped past, the final inspirational speech had been delivered, and the last of the hoarse cheers had been uttered, you barely had time to savor November’s title celebration before you began waiting for the other blue shoe to drop.
Teo was a free agent, and that meant this band of ring bearers could be broken up, and, oh no!
The Dodgers couldn’t let such a giant presence walk, could they? They weren’t really going to be blinded by analytics and age and contract length and fail to sign everybody’s newest favorite player, were they?
In the past, they might have. In the past, there was actually little chance they would have rewarded a 32-year-old playing for his fourth team with a lucrative three-year deal based partially on intangibles.
You knew all this, and you were scared, and it shaded your every perception of what had been an otherwise wildly successful offseason.
Teoscar Hernández, right, celebrates with Mookie Betts after hitting a two-run home run in Game 2 of the World Series against the New York Yankees on Oct. 26.
(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)
Signing two-time Cy Young winner Blake Snell was nice, but what about Teo?
Extending October hero Tommy Edman was a boss move, but hey, where’s Teo?
Adding smart-swinging lefty outfielder Michael Conforto was cool, but what does this mean for Teo?
Blake Treinen was brought back, and Japanese star pitcher Roki Sasaki could be coming but…hello? Teo?
All those fears were erased Friday afternoon in what is usually a time for sports teams to dump their bad news in hopes that it gets lost in the weekend.
This was the opposite of that. Teo is back, and the New Year’s party starts now.
It turns out, while negotiations were painfully protracted, the end result was always obvious in what is pretty close to a perfect relationship between a star and a team.
Hernández wanted to stay, something he had been openly expressing by the end of the championship parade.
And the Dodgers, in valuing him as not only an All-Star player but a standout leader, wanted him to stay.
It was all pretty simple, really, and now, for the rest of baseball, it’s downright suffocating.
The Dodgers don’t need to do anything else this winter and already they’re better than last season.
By keeping their title core together while essentially adding two ace pitchers — Snell and the mound return of Ohtani — the Dodgers are a lock to win the National League West for the 12th time in 13 seasons and should be heavy favorites to become the first team to win consecutive World Series since the New York Yankees from 25 years ago.
Andrew Friedman and the Dodger ownership group understands this team and this market as well as any front office in franchise history. In bringing back a guy who had 33 homers and 99 RBIs and arguably the team’s exciting personality, they have continued to maintain a monster.
Look at their lineup, rich with regular-season MVPs, National League Championship Series MVPs, World Series MVPs and, oh yeah, a home-run derby champion.
Check out their rotation, led by four aces in Ohtani, Snell, Tyler Glasnow and Yoshinobu Yamamoto.
Then there’s the bullpen, which could be anchored by the veteran who shut down the New York Yankees for 2 ⅓ innings in the World Series clincher, the retention of Treinen being a sneaky good move.
If possible, Friedman has had a winter that rivaled Hernández’s Game 5 division series homer for excitement.
As crazy as it sounds, Friedman has worked an offseason that could come close to matching Hernández’s Game 5 World Series two-run double for impact.
It all became clear Friday afternoon with two words that appeared on Hernández’s Instagram story.
“I’m Back,” he wrote.
Run it back, you shouted.
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