Watching Teoscar Hernández win the HRD pours salt in the wounds for Blue Jays fans

To add a cherry on top of the Toronto Blue Jays inability to score runs this season, former Jays star Teoscar Hernández won the 2024 home run derby at the All-Star Game festivities on Monday night.

His 49 combined homers in the competition equals 57% of Toronto’s season-to-date home run total of 86, which helps to explain their 44-52 last place record in the AL East, 14.0 games back of the division leading Baltimore Orioles, and 9.5 games back in the Wild Card standings.

Toronto limped into the All-Star break with a 17-23 record in June and July, for only a .425 winning percentage over those two months-to-date. The buzzards are circling over this roadkill of a season, and the Jays are expected to be sellers ahead of the July 30 Trade Deadline.

To see the now-31-year-old Hernández betting on himself and blasting moonshot after moonshot to beat Bobby Witt Jr. 14-13 in the HRD finals last night was just more salt in the wounds of this disappointing season in Toronto. He signed a one-year, $23.5M contract with Los Angeles, and that’s worked out well for both sides.

“They believe in everything I've got and they believe that I can help the team win. And I think that does make the difference between this year and the last couple of years.”

He’s the first Dodger ever to win the home run derby, and there were some Blue Jays connections that helped him: All-Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. was wearing Teo’s old No. 37 Blue Jays jersey, and afterwards Hernández credited Guerrero for having a positive impact on his performance.

“That was one of the biggest surprises tonight, what he did [with my old jersey],” said Hernandez. “When he came to home plate, he was trying to calm me down. And it worked. What he said helped me going into the last round in the final.”

Unsurprisingly, social media was buzzing over the contrast of the current Blue Jays offence, and what it could have been with Hernández’s potent bat in the lineup. He’s slashing .261/.327/.475 with 19 homers and 62 RBI in 95 games this season. His OPS of .802 is 25% better than the MLB average, and above his career OPS+ of 119.

Those home run, RBI and slugging percentage numbers would lead the Blue Jays, and he’s only trailing his close friend Guerrero on OPS. For a team that has only scored 390 runs in 2024 (to rank 24th in baseball), with a negative run differential of -66, surely Toronto could find room for a power-hitting outfielder like Hernández, who keeps his teammates loose in the clubhouse and dugout over the 162-game grind of a regular season.