This season has offered many twists and turns thanks to the injuries to both the major league roster and some of the minor league rosters but one twist that I did not see coming at all this season would be the return of Anderson Hernandez. Lets take a little trip back in time to remember what Hernandez meant for the Mets. When he first started out he was pretty exciting.We got him in a 2005 trade from the Tigers for Vance Wilson. He was young, fast, and he could hit (debatable). Second base was a position that haunted Mets fans at that point since Reyes tried it out and got injured. We had Valetine and then it seemed we had a whole bunch of people before we got to Castillo.
Hernandez brought a lot of hope with him because of his winter ball. For several winter seasons he hit like he was the Ted Williams of winter ball. During the offseason when there are no new stats, his became something to watch and something to get excited about for next season. Well time and time again when the Mets used him in the regular season, he forgot how to hit and he started to become not just a disappointment but an enigma. Why can he hit so much better in winter ball than in regular season ball?
Well on August 20, 2008 the Mets office made a trade that sent the up and down Hernandez to the Nationals for Luis Ayala (The trade wasn't really made then, it was 8/20 when the Mets sent over Hernandez to complete the trade as a player to be named later). He played in the majors for the first time that year and he hit .333 in 81 bats. So far this year he is hitting .251. Both of these are the best that he has ever done in a season so far (with the Mets he hit .053 in a season and .153 and then in 07 he went 1-3 for the season).
Thus we start the next Anderson Hernandez chapter in a season that has seen a lot of strange things already.
