In an offseason of dramatic change, Kiké Hernández — entering his third year with the Red Sox — has been an anchor.
His ability to move between center field, shortstop, and second base has been one of the team’s greatest assets in confronting jarring change, first with the departure of Xander Bogaerts and then with the early-season loss of Trevor Story to elbow surgery.
Yet beyond defensive alignments, Hernández has emerged as the public face of the team. He was a lead recruiter of free agents such as Justin Turner, serving as an advocate when there was skepticism about the team’s commitment to 2023. When the Bruins and Penguins played in the Winter Classic at Fenway, Hernández served as de facto host.
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More recently, the Red Sox dedicated their Twitter feed to profiling the 31-year-old.
“Kiké,” Turner said of his former Dodgers and now-Red Sox teammate, “is always in the middle of everything.”
It is a position Hernández intentionally assumed this winter, once Bogaerts — who’d been working out with Hernández at EXOS in Arizona — left for the Padres.
“Losing Xander, we’re losing a big, big boy in the clubhouse,” said Hernández. “I understand that a lot more responsibility falls on my shoulders.”
Hernández welcomes the chance to assume a larger clubhouse role, a status not foreign to him.
In the winter of 2020-21, when Sox manager Alex Cora recruited Hernández, he offered not only an opportunity but an aspiration. He wanted Hernández not to be “just” a role player known chiefly for his ability to play a bunch of positions and his role as what Cora described as “the Rally Banana guy,” a title drawing from antics inspired by the fruit in 2015.
The Sox believed Hernández had an opportunity to flourish, on and off the field. By the second half of the 2021 season, he emerged as not only a dynamic top-of-the-order hitter but also a key ally for the coaching staff in its messaging to the team.
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When the Sox were struggling that August, their hold on a playoff spot loosening after getting swept by the Yankees in a doubleheader, then-assistant hitting coach Pete Fatse and Hernández took stock.
“In the dugout, we were just like, man, we gotta get our focus away from, ‘Big picture, our ship is sinking.’ How are we going to do this?” Fatse, now the Sox’ hitting coach, recounted. “[Hernández] said, ‘We need to get back to a process-oriented mindset. … This is a way I think we could do it.’ ”
Hernández suggested members of the team acknowledge quality at-bats — grinding counts, solid contact, situational hitting — by tracing a checkmark in the air with their index fingers. Whether coincidental or not, the Sox offense recovered from its sputter to score 5.6 runs per game over its last 39, helping propel it to the postseason.
The involvement of Hernández reflected the high regard in which he’s held.
“He knows the game at a high level,” said Fatse. “In terms of his communication, I think his voice is very well received.”
Hernández, Fatse noted, relates well to players given both his experiences on winning teams — he played in the postseason every year from 2015-21 — and because he can identify with both everyday and role players. Outfielder Rob Refsnyder noted that bilingualism and work with both infielders and outfielders further broadens Hernández’s impact.
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“He’s one of our clubhouse leaders,” said Refsnyder. “He’s a super-charismatic guy.”
Yet as much as teammates value Hernández’s voice and personality, his greatest impact in 2023 will derive from on-field production — and availability — after a disappointing 2022.
Hernández, who missed more than two months due to an abdominal muscle strain that also hindered his early performance, hit just .222/.291/.328 — one of the worst and most frustrating years of his career.
The Sox reached a one-year, $10 million extension with Hernández in mid-September — a deal that reflected the team’s view of a valuable up-the-middle player as well as Hernández’s affinity for Boston at a time when he sought a one-year deal to re-establish his market. While a surging offseason market with a shortage of center fielders might have offered him a more lucrative deal had he reached free agency, Hernández didn’t second-guess his choice.
“I understand my value was way higher than what I produced last season, but at the end of the day, you get paid for producing and I did not do that last year,” said Hernández. “I had a kind of freaky, somewhat serious injury. I’m sure that’s something that could scare teams off. And in the time that I was playing, I didn’t play even remotely close to my best. I believe, in my eyes, I got a very fair deal for what I gave the team last year, and I have zero regrets of signing that deal and coming back.”
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His offseason has featured a cyclone of activity in pursuit of a bounceback. Within two weeks of the end of the season, Hernández began a hitting program at Driveline’s facility in Arizona, the earliest return to the batting cage of his career.
He flew to Louisiana and the Baseball Performance Lab to get fitted for bats tailored to the biomechanics of his swing. He also trained at EXOS and then Rize, in hopes of moving past his injury-hindered season.
“He’s completely devoted,” said Refsnyder, who has been hitting with Hernández at Driveline. “He’s pushing the envelope of what his limits are.”
“This offseason, I’ve learned so much,” said Hernández. “It’s been a learning process and I’m learning a lot of things that are I think not just going to help me in the present, but they’re probably going to help me extend my career. I’m really excited to have the progress that I’ve made this offseason physically for when I go into the season.”
For the Sox, Hernández represents a potential key in the team’s hopes of defying modest expectations. The final three-plus months of 2021, he was one of the top all-around performers in the American League, ranking fifth in Fangraphs’ WAR after June 27, then delivering an incredible postseason performance (.408/.423/.837 with 5 homers).
If he can become more consistent — a focus of both his swing work (he’s eliminated his leg kick and repositioned his hands for a more compact swing) and training — the Sox believe he could be a difference-maker.
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“His ceiling’s elite,” said Fatse. “At his best, he’s a very dynamic guy on both sides of the ball. … He can get on base, he knows the strike zone, and when he’s going really well, he’s impacting the ball to all fields. He can be a special player.”
In a way, he has had a dynamic offseason — a voice of determination in the face of doubt.
“There’s a lot of guys in that locker room that are going to be playing with a chip on their shoulder,” said Hernández. “When you have a lot of guys like that, things can get fun and we can become a dangerous team.”
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.