Some guys you just don’t give up. Boston picked up a winner with the signing of  Kiké Hernandez.

There are some guys in baseball who are “glue “guys. They don’t get a lot of credit. Maybe their numbers aren’t the greatest. But they provide depth and flexibility and a winning culture to their teams.  Kiké Hernandez is that guy. The fun loving baby faced kid from Puerto Rico is now with the Boston Red Sox, joining outfielder and former Dodger Alex Verdugo.

Boston gets a guy who can hit left-handed pitching out of the park. Though his stats didn’t show it, his approach and the quality of his at-bats really improved last year. The short field in left won’t hurt his average any.

The Sox also get his ability to play the middle infield and outfield positions, which will certainly come in handy as the team tries to regain the top spot in the American League East. And don’t forget Hernandez also plays first.

Speaking of which, Las Vegas odds-makers have the Dodgers winning 104 games this year. They certainly upgraded the pitching staff with the addition of Trevor Bauer. But Hernandez was instrumental in so many wins including the World Series that I believe his loss will be felt in various facets of the Dodgers game planning. Zach McKinstry could be really good. He hit .300 and 19 homers in the minors two years ago. If he’s solid, maybe L.A. forgets about Hernandez. But I doubt it. First, Hernandez was great in the dugout and clubhouse keeping the pressure off the players who were under plenty to perform. There’s a need for a guy who specializes in shaving cream pie deliveries. He was also the Swiss Army Knife of the team, able to play anywhere. That’s a player that’s hard to come by. Assuming the Dodgers make the playoffs there will come a critical time when Dave Roberts needs to put a defensive replacement in the game in order to make an offense substitution. From muscle memory he’s going to turn and look for Hernandez. When he can’t find him, itt’s going to be then that he realizes the biggest move this off-season was not the addition of Bauer but the loss of  Kiké.