What Alex Cora Lamented After Red Sox Traded Kiké Hernández

Heading into the 2023 Major League Baseball season, Kiké Hernández was confident he would be able to make a smooth transition from being the Red Sox’s starting center fielder to the club’s everyday shortstop.

It proved to be a very challenging experiment and one that only lasted a few months.

After Hernández’s shaky 10 weeks at shortstop, Alex Cora announced the versatile veteran would see less time at the position for Boston. Hernández ended up still receiving a fair amount of reps at shortstop following Cora’s revelation, but the 10th-year pro never was able to be consistently productive for the Red Sox this season. Hernández now will try to flip that script with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who he was traded to Tuesday.

Cora touched on the Hernández trade — which brought two pitching prospects to Boston — after the Red Sox’s series-opening win over the Atlanta Braves at Fenway Park. Within his remarks, the manager highlighted what he believes was a preseason misstep.

“If we could go back in time, he should have stayed with us and played shortstop in spring training for those two and a half, three weeks,” Cora told reporters, per MassLive. “He’s a good defender but he hasn’t played the position for a while. Him playing center field (for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic), it didn’t work out for the Red Sox. Because the time that he missed, it was huge for us. He was in such a good place defensively early on (in camp), then when he came back (from the WBC), we had to catch up and I think that was why he struggled early in the season.”

Fortunately for Hernández, he’s off to familiar surroundings where he should be able to tack on more playoff experience later this year. The 31-year-old is expected to do a little bit of everything for the Dodgers, and if he makes the most of his opportunity, he should be in store for a favorable foray into free agency this winter.