The Dodgers made a clean bullpen swap on June 30, 2026, recalling Wyatt Mills from Triple-A Oklahoma City and designating Jonathan Hernández for assignment. Hernández, who had only just joined the club on a major league deal a little more than six weeks earlier, is now off the 40-man roster after 12 appearances.
The move matters because it comes at the point in the season when the Dodgers are managing every bullpen slot with no room for a reliever who is out of options. Mills takes the active spot, while Hernández heads into a process that can decide whether he stays in the organization, gets traded, or lands with another club if another team claims him.
Hernández’s numbers explain why the Dodgers chose now. He worked 17 2/3 innings and allowed an 8.15 earned runs per nine rate, with a 59.1% strand rate, an 18.1% strikeout rate and a 14.5% walk rate. The raw stuff was still there — his fastball sat around 97 miles per hour — but the results never caught up, and velocity alone was not enough to keep him on the roster.
That is a sharp turn for a pitcher who once looked like a useful arm. Hernández’s best season came in the shortened 2020 campaign with the Rangers, when he logged 31 innings with a 2.90 ERA, then followed that with a 2.97 ERA in 2022. The slide since then has been steady: a 5.40 ERA in 2023, another 5.40 ERA in 2024, and most of 2025 spent on the injured list in the minors.
What happens next is straightforward in structure, even if it is not yet settled in outcome. Hernández must clear waivers first, a process that can take 48 hours, and the Dodgers could hold the next move open for as long as five days if they want to gauge trade interest. If no team claims him and he clears, he has the right to elect free agency because of his prior outright and service time. For now, the roster spot belongs to Mills, and Hernández is waiting to see whether June 30 becomes a detour or an exit.
