The Dodgers announced a pair of roster moves Monday ahead of their series opener against the Athletics, making the transactions as they finalized the active roster for the matchup.
The moves come as Los Angeles opens a new inter-league series against the Athletics, facing the American League West team’s rookie ace left-hander Gage Jump in Monday night’s game.
Outfielder Teoscar Hernández has been reinstated after a full month on the injured list, the team confirmed Monday, according to NBC Sports. Outfielder Ryan Ward, who held down left field during Hernández’s absence, was optioned back to the Triple-A Oklahoma City Comets.
Hernández, 33, landed on the IL on May 29 after suffering a Grade 1 left hamstring strain during a May 27 game against the Colorado Rockies at Dodger Stadium. An MRI revealed the mildest possible severity of the injury, news the outfielder described as encouraging at the time. He had projected a one-month absence, and he hit that timetable on the nose, returning 31 days after going on the injured list.
Teoscar Hernández Returns With Power Surge
GettyTeoscar Hernández #37 of the Los Angeles Dodgers returns on Monday.
Before the hamstring issue cut his season short, Hernández had built a productive first half. In 51 games and 204 plate appearances, he posted a .276/.348/.436 slash line with seven home runs, 31 RBI and two stolen bases, according to Yahoo Sports. In the 18 games immediately before the injury, he batted .367 with seven extra-base hits.
The rehab stint in Reno with Triple-A Oklahoma City did nothing to dim that momentum. In three games, Hernández went deep three times and drove in six runs across 11 plate appearances, making his readiness to return quite clear.
“It changes the dynamic and the length [of the lineup]. Teo, obviously, there’s added slug, and depending if he’s hitting fifth, sixth or seventh, it just adds that length,” manager Dave Roberts said, as quoted by Dodgers Nation‘s Nelson Espinal.
The Dodgers went 17-10 across the 27 games Hernández missed, a respectable mark, but the lineup figures to take on a measurably improved look with his bat back in the middle of the order.
Ryan Ward’s MLB Stint Ends
GettyThe Dodgers sent Ryan Ward back to Oklahoma City on Monday.
Ward, 28, gave Los Angeles a reliable left-field presence while Hernández recovered. In roughly 20 games and 60 plate appearances during his second stint with the club this year, he batted .218 with three home runs and 12 RBI â including a grand slam on June 10. The power showed up clearly in that stretch, with Ward registering exit velocities above 108 mph on multiple home runs.
Ward came up through the Dodgers’ system as a 2019 eighth-round pick out of Bryant University and built a reputation as one of the organization’s steadiest power producers at the minor-league level. He won the 2025 Joe Bauman Award after leading all of Minor League Baseball with 36 home runs for Oklahoma City and was named Pacific Coast League MVP.
With Hernández back, Ward returns to Triple-A while Alex Call reverts to a fourth-outfielder role and Tommy Edman gains flexibility to split time between second base and left field. The Dodgers get no days off until July 9, so the plan calls for easing Hernández into a four-to-five-game-per-week workload before ramping him up further.
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