Orlando Hernandez leaves Double-A team amid possible rift with Nationals

Orlando Hernandez signed a minor-league contract with the Nationals last month and had pitched very well since moving his comeback up to Double-A, posting a 1.86 ERA, .147 opponents’ batting average, and 12/5 K/BB ratio in 9.2 innings as a reliever. He was presumably in line for a potential September call-up to join his brother Livan Hernandez in Washington, but yesterday El Duque “abruptly” left the Double-A team because, as Nationals director of player development Doug Harris explained:

He realized the opportunity he was seeking may not present itself here, and he felt it was time to go in another direction.

However, according to Geoff Morrow of the Harrisburg Patriot News “sources said Hernandez left in part because the Nationals hadn’t yet given him a major league shot despite his helping the organization sign highly touted Cuban pitcher Yunesky Maya earlier this summer.” Harris called that “a bad rumor” but then did lend a bit of credence to the notion by saying:

I have no idea about his direct influence [with signing Maya]. I don’t think he hand-delivered him to us. Yunesky Maya’s agent is also Livan Hernandez’s agent. I think [Orlando Hernandez] was comforting for Yunesky, but he didn’t walk him to us.

Who knows what went on behind closed doors, but it certainly wouldn’t seem like a huge stretch if the Nationals signed Hernandez in the hopes he could help them bring in Maya and at least hinted strongly that he’d be in line for a call-up in the process. Or maybe not, who knows. Either way, Hernandez signed a minor-league deal, pitched well for a month at two different levels, and then quit right when a call-up would have been most likely.