Kiké Hernández returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers after offseason left elbow surgery and made an immediate impact in a Memorial Day game versus the Colorado Rockies. He went 2-for-2 with a double and an RBI as the Dodgers rallied for a 5-3 comeback win. The team had re-signed him to a one-year, $4.5 million contract before Spring Training, placing him in his 10th season with the organization. There were no guarantees he would return, but he credited conversations with Dr. Neal ElAttrache and Andrew Friedman right after his operation. Hernández described the injury as severe and said he feels healthy now, contrasting it with a 2025 season marked by extreme discomfort.
"We went into the surgery not really knowing how serious it was going to be, or if it was just going to be a cleanup. And I woke up with ElAttrache telling me, 'This was the worst injury I've ever seen of this kind, and I don't know how you played.' I told him, 'Thank you, I take it as a compliment.'"
"I FaceTimed Andrew (Friedman) right then and there, and I told him, 'ElAttrache, tell him what you just said,' and I was like, 'I did this for you, so you better bring me back.' And 'Possum' (Dodgers trainer Yosuke Nakajima) took the phone away from me, because I was pretty drugged up still. But that's how it went."
"I mean, a lot better. It was a rough year. The best description that I can put on is like every time I would get in my batting stance, I would feel like I had a blowtorch on. And it was kind of frustrating because there was not much we could do for it. But it's fixed, and I'm glad it's fixed and feeling pretty good right now."
Read at Dodger Blue
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