Red Sox 2B Kiké Hernández in the top 10 most popular MLB jerseys

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Preface all this by noting that Boston Red Sox second baseman Kiké Hernández is a good baseball player.

He’s not one of the big ones or even the very good ones, although it might depend on your definition of very good. Either way, he was a valuable utility man for the Los Angeles Dodgers when they won three World Series in four years. He can play competently in almost any position on the court and has respectable power at home, especially in the playoffs. He’s also a pretty fun personality on and off the pitch.

Kiké Hernández is a good baseball player. It was still a huge surprise when his name appeared here:

Apparently, Hernández sits between Francisco Lindor, a team’s new star shortstop in MLB’s biggest market, and Mike Trout, the best player of his time, in terms of jersey popularity. Well ahead of players like Juan Soto and Jacob deGrom.

With all due respect to Hernández, this is mind blowing. It was apparently also astonishing for Hernández, as this is how the player responded to Chris Cotillo from MassLive:

“Not just the fact that it was in front of Mike [Trout], but the fact that I’m in the top 10 in the major leagues, for me it was mind-blowing, â€Hernández said on Wednesday afternoon. “There are so many very, very good players in the big leagues and the fact that only eight of them sold more shirts than me last year, I don’t know how it went. I am truly touched and honored. It is truly an honor to be on this list. I don’t have much to say because it was completely unexpected.

How does Kiké Hernández rank among the top 10 best-selling jerseys in MLB?

Francisco Lindor. Kiké Hernandez. Mike Trout. Three players with similar levels of jersey sales, apparently. (Photo by Billie Weiss / Boston Red Sox / Getty Images)

So here we are with a player who has never received an All-Star vote or an MVP with a more popular jersey than the two reigning MVPs, the two reigning winners of Cy Young, the reigning World Series MVP and the best player of this generation. It deserves some additional digging.

In the MLB press release announcing the roster, the league said its ranking was based on “MLBShop.com’s sales of Nike player jerseys since the end of the 2020 playoffs.” Assuming that this was not all the result of a clerical error, we can try to expose a few reasons why Hernández would do well during this time.

For starters, he was a fan favorite on a World Series winning team with one of baseball’s biggest fan bases. The Dodger’s bump not only boosted Hernández’s sales, but also placed three players – Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger Clayton Kershaw – and another, Corey Seager, in the top 20. Of course, you must be wondering how Hernández got it. overtaken Seager, who became a supernova. in the playoffs.

This could be explained by the change of team of Hernández. After signing a two-year, $ 14 million contract with the Red Sox this offseason, Hernández is expected to be the team’s starting second baseman in 2021. He has therefore played between two of baseball’s biggest fan bases. and represents Boston’s largest free agent signing. the offseason (which says a lot more about modern Red Sox than Hernández).

As some have noted on Twitter, Hernández’s jersey number could also be a factor. He wears the number 5, the same as Nomar Garciaparra, and the Red Sox do not put player names on the back of their home shirts. Meanwhile, his jersey with the Dodgers may have sold for a very low price this offseason due to his outing.

Even with all of that background, it’s still pretty crazy to see Hernández’s name on this list. And it may be of concern to MLB how many of its so-called rising stars have been overtaken by a public service man with a career of 0.738 OPS.

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