When the news broke on Wednesday afternoon that the Dodgers had acquired longtime Phillies second baseman Chase Utley, initial reactions ranged from extremely favorable to WTF? One of the more frequently heard comments was: “What can 36-year-old Utley bring to the team that red hot-hitting 23-year-old Kiké Hernandez doesn’t already have?” And while the argument in favor of Hernandez may be well warranted, the best, yet almost unheard of argument is that it will allow the Dodgers to add some offensive punch in center field – and it won’t be the .217-hitting Joc Pederson.

There is absolutely zero argument that Pederson, who is exactly 240 days younger than Hernandez, is the best defensive center fielder not named Mike Trout in the game today. Unfortunately, there is also zero doubt that Pederson, although always a home run threat, is also perhaps the closest thing to a designated out as there can be. Pederson has had 389 official at-bats this season and has struck out in 140 of them – that’s 36 percent of the time. And that’s the good news. The bad news is that since the All-Star Break, Pederson has had 87 official at-bats and has struck out in 33 of them, or 38 percent of the time while posting a triple-slash of .172/.336/.310.

With 42 games remaining, Pederson trails former Dodger Matt Kemp’s single-season strikeout record of 153 by only 13. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

By comparison, Hernandez is 47 for 155 (.303) on the season in his limited playing time but has a triple-slash of .377/.450/.604 since the All-Star break. And while the multi-positional-playing Hernandez has appeared in only 19 second-half games compared to Pederson’s 27, Kiké has struck out only 13 times, which is a far more acceptable 24.5 percent of the time. But without question the biggest and most alarming separation between Hernandez and Pederson is that since the break, Hernandez has hit the exact same number of home runs as Pederson has (three) while striking out 20 fewer times and has an alien-like second-half OPS of 1.054 compared to Pederson’s .647 second-half OPS.

There’s hot, and then there’s Kiké Hernandez hot.
(Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Since Dodgers everyday second baseman Howie Kendrick landed on the disabled list with a strained left hamstring on August 9, Hernandez has been used as Kendrick’s primary replacement. In fact, he has played second base in all nine games since Kendrick went down (although he did play parts of two games at shortstop as well). In those nine games and, in fact, in all 19 games he has played at second base this season, Hernandez had not committed a single error in 80 total chances. This isn’t just playing a good second base, this is playing a Gold Glove-caliber second base. He has also committed zero errors in 11 total chances in the eight games in which he has filled in for Pederson in center field this season, although (as noted above) he is nowhere near the defensive center fielder that Pederson is.

With Wednesday’s acquisition if Utley, there is no doubt whatsoever that Utley will take over as the Dodgers everyday second baseman, thereby being reunited with his longtime teammate Jimmy Rollins up the middle. This allows Hernandez and his smoking hot bat to take over center field for Pederson and his ice cold bat.

But will the Dodgers actually replace their once NL-leading Rookie of the Year candidate with a utility bench player? According to Dodgers general manager Farhan Zaidi they will – and in a heartbeat.

“We’re going to run our eight best guys out there every night. The way he’s been hitting, he’s one of those guys,” said Zaidi of Hernandez during a telephonic press conference on Wednesday evening.

If this is the case and with Thursday being a day off for the Dodgers, and with Chase Utley and his current .484 second-half batting average expected to be in the Dodgers lineup in Friday’s series opener against the AL West-leading Houston Astros, it may well be Joc Pederson who is now the utility bench player and not Kiké Hernandez.