What should Mariners do with Teo Hernández? Morosi weighs in

The Seattle Mariners’ biggest move of the offseason took a bit to get going.

Key to Seattle Mariners’ historic month? Something they doubled down on

The addition of slugging veteran outfielder Teoscar Hernández was one that the Mariners and the team’s fanbase were very excited about, but Hernández struggled quite a bit in April and May.

A big month of June seemed to signal that Hernández was returning to form, but he had his worst month of the year in July.

Then August happened.

The Mariners won a franchise-record 21 games in August, and Hernández was right in the middle of it.

Julio Rodríguez led the way with a monster month, and Hernández was right behind him, slashing a ridiculous .365/.396/.654 (1.050 OPS) with seven home runs, 16 extra-base hits and 22 RBIs.

Hernández was a key topic during MLB Network insider Jon Morosi’s Thursday visit with Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob, both for what he’s been doing at the plate and his future.

“He’s such a productive player,” Morosi said. “He can be streaky … He can have months where he really is not someone that you notice that much, which I think was the case early on this season, and then he’ll have months where he is the man that is the middle of everything. (He’s been) the metronome of what they have done in this last month. He has been there, the steady RBIs the professional at-bats. Often, of course, J-Rod has been on base when Teoscar has come up. And I do think that if you now were to record a pitching and defensive meeting going on for the opposition to the Mariners, they would basically say, ‘We can’t let Julio beat us and we also can’t let Teoscar beat us.’”

Morosi was more than impressed by what Hernández did at the plate last month. He, like Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto, also pointed to the Aug. 1 trade deadline when discussing Hernández.

“If you look at what he’s done in the last month, he’s got an OPS above 1.000, he’s batting over .360 with power, he’s driven in 20 runs in the last 30 days, which is a remarkable stat when you consider his season,” Morosi said. “And I think overall, we talk about the ways in which the Mariners’ season pivoted and turned and the crucial moments that arrived late in July and then into August, sometimes they say the best trades are those that you don’t make. And I really believe that Teoscar’s name was out there in the month of July, but that for them to make that move, they were gonna need to be overwhelmed in a deal that brought them back a lot of value, and helped them be a good club right now.”

Should Seattle Mariners re-sign him?

Hernández is a pending free agent, and after his hot play, it’s likely the Mariners give him a qualifying offer this offseason, which would still allow the outfielder to test the free-agent market, but would allow the M’s to net a compensatory pick if he signed elsewhere.

But what about making…