Alexis Hernandez – Picture via his Instagram

For Alexis Hernandez, he is always going to be compared to his older brother, Cristian Hernandez. Sadly, people are going to do it. I tend to think it’s unfair and that Alexis should be evaluated on his own merits, performance, and production. He was signed in 2022 for $1 million and was actually highly rated in his own right. 

Basic information

Height – 6 foot
Weight – 155 at signing
Bats – Right
Throws – Right
Age – 18
From – Santo Domingo in the DR
Signed as an international free agent, January 15, 2022

Heading into his debut season in 2022 in the Dominican Summer League, I wasn’t sure of what to think of Alexis Hernandez. He did not have the hype around him that his brother had, and that may have been a good thing in hindsight.

The first 2 weeks of Alexis’ career could not have started in a worse way. He went zero for 19 to start his pro career. So, to sum up, his first month, it was not good. He did rebound well enough to hit .104 in June. And he also walked quite a bit that month as he had a .251 on base percentage, which is quite high, considering where his batting average was.

However, in July, he just torched it.

For the month he hit .370 with a .426 on base percentage. His OPS for the month was 1.000. He did hit two home runs, he drove nine, and that was enough to begin turning some heads about the possibility of one Alexis Hernandez.

Just what that possibility is remains to be seen.

For the most part, he is playing shortstop. There are some who would think that when he was signed, he could move to the outfield as he was athletic enough to possibly play center. None of those options are off the table. But for right now, the Cubs are letting him stick in the infield.

As for his defense, here is what Dai Dai Otaka, the Cubs roving infield instructor, had to say about Alexis:

He moves fairly well. He needs to get stronger, get bigger, and arm strength will come with that as he gets stronger. He has a good knack for fielding the ball, like securing it. His hands work fine. He’s been playing a lot of shortstop. He’s probably one of the better ones playing shortstop. It’s nice having him down there.

This year, Alexis is turning heads again. At the time I began writing this article, he was hitting .388 with a .950 for OPS on June 24. In the middle of last night’s game, he was over .400 and had an OPS over .1000. He is still just 18 years old and he’s pretty much dominated the Arizona Complex League in the first month of the season.

That performance is really making me wonder just exactly how good he can be. The hardest thing to do is to look at a player and wonder just exactly what they’re going to be like in four or five years, especially when you’re talking about an 18-year-old kid. They’re going to go through a lot of physical changes over the next four years as their bodies tend to fill out quite a bit at that age. Some players will continue to grow in height in addition to gaining weight. Other players will mature in different ways, emotionally and socially. And some adapt pretty smoothly to cultural changes between playing in the Dominican and the United States..

For Alexis, those are things that are going to happen. It’s hard to really judge just exactly how much he does change in those areas as well as what he can do on the field and where he does it.

For, he’s off to a amazing start to 2023.