The Los Angeles Dodgers are on the brink of elimination against the Toronto Blue Jays in the World Series.
With the Blue Jays up 3-2 and owning home-field advantage for Game 6 (and 7 if necessary), Dodgers outfielder Teoscar Hernández spoke on Toronto’s slugger, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., who has been hot all October long.
So far through the Fall Classic, the 26-year-old is hitting .364/.500/.636 with a 1.136 OPS. Hernández revealed the differences he sees in Guerrero and what has been setting him apart.
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“I think the only difference that I see on him is that he understands now that he has to be the leader of that group and that he has to do things and then the team are going to follow him because that’s the way everybody was seeing him since the first day he got into the league,” Hernández said. “When we were there, I always tell him that he’s the face of the organization, and he has to be a leader for the group.”
Hernández and Guerrero were teammates on the Blue Jays from the slugger’s rookie season in 2019 until the end of the 2022 campaign, when Hernández went to the Seattle Mariners, and a season later became a Dodger.
“Yeah, as much as I want to think about myself and the Dodgers, you know, I have a good relationship with him,” Hernández said. “He’s doing the same thing with me. He’s following every step of my career, all of the games and everything. We had a really good communication during the season, during the playoffs, and now that we’re facing each other.
“It’s just incredible. There’s nothing that has surprised me, because I know he was able to do that. I think he just doesn’t have the opportunity like now to show everything that he can do on the field.”
Guerrero’s father also started his MLB career in Canada, playing eight seasons with the Montreal Expos (now the Washington Nationals). He collected four of his nine All-Star selections in Montreal en route to a Hall of Fame career. Now Vlad Jr. has a chance to continue his dad’s legacy and bring a championship to Canada for the first time since 1993.
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