It was just... they had this nice, new stadium, but didn't have hitters who could use it properly.
I'm talking about guys who can hit big, massive taters. Huge, gargantuan dingers that would fly way over the left field porch at Blackwater Field and land in the river on the fly. Those are the kind of dingers that bring people to the ballpark.
So the front office decided it would be a good marketing move to add a DH-type hitter to the roster. Preferably a righty, who could split time with left-handed fan favorite Masahiko Harada, spotting him some off days against lefty starters. They were hoping to find a fringe major leaguer through a minor trade, someone who wouldn't be mad about the reduced playing time.
What they found instead might be the future of the franchise.
The bottom line was, he was ready to play in the majors, and Vancouver didn't have a spot for him. Their DH spot was occupied by Royce Hinkle, who very conveniently decided to hit 7 home runs in the opening week of the season. That meant Hernández was available.
Cape Fear wasted no time swooping in and trading for him. It did, however, cost them their top two pitching prospects, the injury-prone starter Erasmus Gianakopulos and the flame-throwing reliever Lu-king Vein, as well as second base prospect Shu-de Sa and third base prospect Sergio Mendoza.
It was a haul. But the return was worth it for Cape Fear — they would get their DH for now, and potentially a cornerstone of their lineup for the future.
And did I mention he hits giant taters?
Hernández was called up to the major leagues immediately following the trade, and made his first start in a Swamp Foxes uniform on April 17. In the fifth inning, he greeted Jacksonville's Rubén bin Majid al Din with a majestic two-run dinger to right field.
As fans in the bleachers scrambled to collect the historic home run, and the cannons of the USS North Carolina echoed from across the river, a wave of excitement permeated in a way that felt foreign for Foxes fans, yet somehow familiar at the same time. Like a feeling that this man crushing baseballs would be something they would see a lot of in the coming years, and something that would define Swamp Foxes Baseball for the foreseeable future.
Hernández went on to make three more starts last week, and ended up hitting three more home runs: one in Charm City, and two in a game in Brooklyn.
The barrage even caught the attention of Hernández' ex-teammate, Royce Hinkle, who called to offer congratulations. Hinkle still has a sizable lead on the home run leaderboard, but it should be fun to watch the two 21-year-olds face off for years to come.
