When Kiké Hernández was a free agent and getting linked to the Red Sox, plenty was made about his relationship with Alex Cora, who has known him since he was a kid.
For that reason, Cora kept his conversation with Hernández on Tuesday brief.
The Red Sox traded Hernández to the Dodgers, easing an increasing logjam up the middle of the field. The Red Sox have Christian Arroyo manning second, and with Yu Chang and Pablo Reyes coming off the injured list, there were more reliable options at shortstop – with Trevor Story also not far away from a return.
With Jarren Duran grabbing hold of center field, Hernández was the last guy standing when the music stopped.
The Red Sox flipped Hernández for Nick Robertson and Justin Hagenman, two Triple-A pitchers knocking on the door to the big leagues (Robertson has already debuted). It should be a mutually beneficial deal, as a change of scenery should be good for Hernández while the Sox get needed pitching depth.
Cora detailed how Hernández took the news during his weekly appearance on Gresh & Fauria.
“I’ve known him since he was seven years old,” Cora said. “So it was a tough one on a personal level, so I decided it was going to be very quick. Here’s what’s going on, boom boom boom.
“We’ve been talking for two weeks about his situation. Game time, how we’re going to use him, his role on the team. He probably saw it coming in a sense, right? There are some players coming out of the IL, we still have Trevor in a few weeks. I think it was a little easier for him because he’s going back to a place that he knows. He knows the coaches, he knows a lot of the players, he feels comfortable there."
Cora joked that since the Dodgers are playing the Blue Jays, Hernández can help his former team right away by playing well for Los Angeles out of the gate.
But the manager also raved about Hernández’ professionalism. Cora shared that he told Hernández around 2:15 p.m. that the trade was close. Since it hadn’t gone through officially, Hernández still led a pregame meeting at 2:45 to prepare for Tuesday night’s game.
“He was really good about it, he was great," Cora said. "You could see him saying goodbye to everybody. He’s coming back in two weeks, three weeks, we play them anyways. One of those that I do believe he had a sense that something is going to happen here. …
“At the end of the day, you have to make a decision based on what you think is going to benefit the organization, and we jumped into this situation.”
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