Blue Jays: Another Player of the Week Award, a New Winner

Monday afternoon, the Toronto Blue Jays tweeted out that Teoscar Hernandez would be taking home the American League Player of the Week honours.

The award marks three consecutive weeks that a Blue Jays player has been named Player of the Week after George Springer took home the award the two previous weeks.

During the span from August 9 to August 15, the Blue Jays played seven games, which included a double-header last Tuesday, and Hernandez played in all seven of the games, collecting multiple hits in all but two of them.  The 28-year old finished the week hitting 14 for 28 (.500) with a pair of doubles, three home runs and 10 RBI to go with eight runs scored.

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Since the start of August, Hernandez has had four 3-hit games and has seen his average jump from .291 on August 1 to .313 at the end of the Seattle series on Sunday.  He also collected is 20th home run of the season to end the week which marks the third time in his career he has hit that mark and now sits just six home runs off his personal best.  Hernandez has already drove in 81 runs this year surpassing his personal best of 65 set in 2019 and will now look to go for the 100-mark.

Many people started drawing comparisons this past offseason of Hernandez’s break out 2020 campaign to that of Blue Jays legend Jose Bautista’s break out season in 2010 when he went from a replacement level player to one of the best power hitters in the game. High Heat Stats tweeted out on Sunday night that over his last 162 games, Hernandez had hit 40 home runs, drove in 126 runs and had a slash line of .303/.351/.548.

As Tyson Shushkewich wrote Monday morning before the Player of the Week announcement, it may be time that Blue Jays look for a long-term deal with Hernandez.  The conversation will be, how much and how long will the star outfielder get.

What kind of contract would you be offering Hernandez?