The Blue Jays selected Hernandez, who moved from Puerto Rico to Florida when he was 14 years old, with their 14th-round pick in 2022 and signed the Houston commit to a $200,000 bonus ($75,000 of which counted toward their bonus pool). Hernandez was in the midst of repeating the Florida Complex League last year when the Cardinals acquired him straight-up in a July trade for left-hander Génesis Cabrera, and he’s taken off in his first full season in the St. Louis system while playing for Single-A Palm Beach.
Standing in at 5-foot-8, Hernandez already shows positive offensive traits as a right-handed hitter. He handles fastball wells, doesn’t whiff against offspeed as much as expected, exhibits solid contact rates on pitches inside the zone and pulls the ball in the air plenty for a player in just his age-20 season. His overall exit velocities won’t wow evaluators at this early stage, but when he really connects, there’s the potential for average pop.
Hernandez eschews modern catching practice by not going down on one knee in his catching stance and staying a relatively high crouch. Despite below-average speed, he’s athletic enough to keep most balls in front of him, and his combination of arm strength, footwork and quick transfer have helped him run a pretty high caught-stealing rate at many stops. There’s the potential for him to be a backup catcher in a system that finds itself loaded behind the plate.
