The Los Angeles Dodgers are raging towards October with some of the best talents in baseball. Not to mention, they have the power of Shohei Ohtani’s bat to back them up. However, that’s not to say there is no danger, that everything might just slip away. Dave Roberts is facing a difficult situation, as of now—how to balance offense with outfield defense perfectly.

At the root of the problem is Teoscar Hernandez. After he had a great one-year stint, the Dodgers gave him a three-year, $66 million deal. Of course, they were expecting him to keep the momentum or even build it up. However, he instead has had the worst career year in terms of on-base percentage, and shaky moments in right field are something no fan can stop talking about.

This has left the team scrambling for solutions. Because come post-season, everyone needs to contribute. Look at the Milwaukee Brewers and how far they have come, simply given everyone is contributing. And here is the tough call: with Ohtani as the DH, in October, Hernandez may be forced to change positions.

Andy McCullough from The Athletic said, “Hernández entered Monday’s games with a career-low. 277 on-base percentage, striking out in more than a quarter of his at-bats. More troublesome has been his performance in right field, where only Phillies outfielder Nick Castellanos and Mets outfielder Juan Soto have been less valuable, according to FanGraphs. With Shohei Ohtani installed as the designated hitter, in October Hernández may move to left field, where he played last season, with Mookie Betts shifting back to right.” 

This situation is not ideal, but it may be the only way for Roberts to hide Hernandez’s defensive shortcomings without losing his bat. Because he is not underperforming, he is now being mentioned on the same list as other defensive liabilities, which surprisingly has Juan Soto, the highest-paid baseball player on the list! Soto has 32 homers and 21 steals, but when one is paid $765, the fan expectation is way above that. Jon Heyman, in fact, didn’t mince words, saying, “Juan Soto historically has been very, very good in big situations… that has really not come to fruition this year. It’s hard to make an excuse for a guy making $765 million.”

Coming to Hernandez, Roberts has tried to be diplomatic. He mentioned that Hernandez needs to pace himself since returning from the groin injury. But he also made it clear that conservation time is done for now. The Dodgers for sure need full effort in the outfield, not managed energy at this point. Now, when it comes to fallback options, LA has Tommy Edman and Andy Pages, too, but if perfection is what they are after, this won’t make the cut.

Ticket sales explode as BTS’ V lights up the Los Angeles Dodgers’ stadium

Sure, the Los Angeles Dodgers have plenty to think about, given their team makeup still is not perfect. But they still have much to celebrate. First, Ohtani hit his 45th homer and is looking good, finally. But they have more to be happy about, and this time it’s the dollars that are in the spotlight. The Dodgers are hosting the Cincinnati Reds, but that’s not the big news. The real spotlight was before the first pitch was even thrown. Reason? Kim Taehung, yes—that BTS star, showed up at the Dodgers stadium. And you bet, the entire place transformed into a K-pop concert.

And the real kicker is that the action started even before the big day. The moment the Dodgers announced that V would throw out the ceremonial pitch, the ARMY, aka the fans, went into action. StubHub, in fact, reports that the ticket sales jumped five times just overnight. Five times, let that sink in! Because you are talking about one man, in no relation to baseball, making an MLB team the most searched thing on the site. In fact, the rush was so intense that StubHub even had a server overload. That’s the star power you are dealing with.

Now, by the game day, social media was buzzing, and the Dodgers just amped it up more. Dodgers tweeted, “ARMY, are you ready?” And that tweet ended up racking up five million views. And well, when V finally walked out of Dodger Stadium, the entire place seemed like it was a BTS world tour stop. It became like a global event. And the fun is not over yet, because South Korean superstar Son Heung-min, who is in the country, is next in line to throw the ceremonial pitch. And you bet that will bring in global eyes, too!