![\"Dodgers](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260311_mjr_su5_006.jpg\")
Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernandez was eager to put his 2025 season in the rearview mirror. Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Hern\u00e1ndez and Pages, however, have been the exceptions.<\/p>\n
They expressed a desire to play early and often in spring games. They wanted to quickly flush the struggles they dealt with at the end of the 2025 season. And as camp winds down this week, they\u2019ve turned their preseasons into promising building blocks for the campaign ahead \u2013\u2013 both batting over .400 while taking the most at-bats of any regulars on the team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI like to be on the field, I like to play, I like to take a lot of at-bats,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd,\u201d he added with a smile, \u201cit\u2019s always good to have success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Success, of course, felt elusive to both players by the time last year ended.<\/p>\n
Hern\u00e1ndez struggled for most of 2025, posting a career-low .738 OPS while playing through a groin injury. Pages\u2019 performance was more of a roller coaster, peaking with a nearly All-Star-caliber first half before a late-season slump led to a benching in the World Series.<\/p>\n
Thus, each of them has used this spring as a reset.<\/p>\n
And entering the final days of camp, they\u2019ve been the two biggest standouts in the Dodgers\u2019 star-studded lineup<\/a>.<\/p>\n For Hern\u00e1ndez, this spring was all about getting healthy, readjusting to his move back to left field, and most importantly recalibrating his swing \u2014 after batting a disappointing .247 last year, albeit while still hitting 25 home runs and collecting 89 RBIs.<\/p>\n The 10-year big leaguer has checked each of those boxes in camp, arriving in better shape than a year ago<\/a> and proceeding to hit 15 for 31 entering play Sunday. He has flashed power, clubbing two home runs last week including an opposite-field blast reminiscent of his resurgent debut season with the Dodgers<\/a> in 2024. He has also improved the quality of his at-bats, striking out just four times in his 33 plate appearances in the Cactus League.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think that the great players \u2014 whatever criticisms or expectations people have of them \u2014 the great ones expect more and are more critical of themselves,\u201d manager Dave Roberts said of Hern\u00e1ndez earlier this spring, while praising the way the two-time All-Star has attacked his work following an offseason in which he was bandied about in trade rumors.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m excited to see what Teo can do this year,\u201d he added. \u201cVery, very excited.\u201d<\/p>\n Pages\u2019 stock might be even higher, going 13 for 32 in Cactus League play with five extra-base hits and consistent center field defense.<\/p>\n He\u2019s looked more like the player who was batting .293 with 17 home runs and 58 RBIs through his first 83 games last season \u2013\u2013 and nothing like the one who hit a woeful .078 in the playoffs before being benched for the final two games of the World Series.<\/p>\n His title-saving catch in Game 7 aside, October served as a reality check for the 25-year-old slugger.<\/p>\n So, this spring, he arrived determined to take the next step in his career.<\/p>\n \u201cThere was nothing offensively I was doing really well [during the playoffs],\u201d Pages said at the start of spring. \u201cI just want to put it in that bucket as just a really bad streak for me.\u201d<\/p>\n Pages\u2019 main focus has been on improving his plate discipline, spending roughly half an hour every day in the team\u2019s hitting lab trying to differentiate borderline balls and strikes from a Trajekt pitching machine.<\/p>\n But, he has also been more intentional in his other daily work around Camelback Ranch, taking what both Roberts and Hern\u00e1ndez have described as a more \u201cmature\u201d approach to everything from his gym routine to outfield drills.<\/p>\n \u201cI could think back to a few years ago when he didn\u2019t really care for the weight room and really wasn\u2019t the best worker,\u201d Roberts recalled. \u201cSo he has grown considerably.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNow, he understands the things he needs to do, and the things he\u2019s going to go through during the season,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez added. \u201cSo he can manage his body, his mind and everything else better.\u201d<\/p>\n The Dodgers are hopeful both players will manage 2026 better than they did 2025.<\/p>\n The team might\u2019ve spent nearly a quarter-billion dollars to shore up the outfield with the signing of Kyle Tucker, but they need Hern\u00e1ndez and Pages to be impact producers in the bottom half of the lineup, too.<\/p>\n That\u2019s why Roberts was so enthused with their aggressive spring plan \u2013\u2013 and why their big Cactus League numbers have carried added meaning in the run-up to Opening Day.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re just trying to keep that up,\u201d Hern\u00e1ndez said, \u201cand do it in the season, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 Spring stats can often be as predictive as shaking a Magic 8 Ball. But in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,2178,39,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4,185,151,1528],"class_list":{"0":"post-625554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-dodgers","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-dodgers","13":"tag-ladodgers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesdodgers","18":"tag-mlb","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-spring-training","21":"tag-teoscar-hernandez"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116235651388172169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=625554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Dodgers](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/20260301_mjr_su5_046-1.jpg\")
Dodgers outfielder Andy Pages struggled in the playoffs after smacking 17 home runs in his first 83 games last season. Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n