For Kiké Hernández, one of the most significant connections of his baseball profession started when baseball was briefly taken away from him.
The Los Angeles Dodgers superutility participant has spent lots of time on the injured listing over the previous two seasons, where the rhythms of a main league season all of a sudden give means to rehab rooms, empty hours and lots of time in isolation. Somewhere inside that monotony, Hernández realized that baseball had consumed so much of his life that he didn’t have any actual hobbies.
“If I’m being honest, the IL is something that’s very boring and lonely,” Hernández advised the California Post in an unique interview last Thursday at the Harold & Carole Pump Foundation twenty sixth Anniversary Celebrity Dinner. “I’ve spent a lot of time on it the last two years.”
Hernández warms up on March 26, 2026, at Dodger Stadium. Carlin Stiehl for CA Post
So instead of taking up pickleball, crochet or baking, Hernández began ripping Pokémon packs.
Hernández said he initially began gathering Pokémon playing cards as a child, but was excited to return to it as an grownup. The first pack he opened was enough to transport the 35-year-old Dodgers fan favourite backward in time.
“The smell, the sensation of ripping a pack, all these things,” Hernández said. “It made me feel like a kid.”
What started as an escape during an emotionally tough stretch quickly grew to become something greater when his 5-year-old daughter, Penélope, joined him.
She fell for Pikachu, just like her dad.
Los Angeles Dodgers superutility participant Kiké Hernández (left) opens up a pack of Pokémon playing cards with his 5-year-old daughter Penélope.
Now, father and daughter tear into packs of Pokémon, Disney, My Little Pony and even Netflix’s KPop Demon Hunters, turning Hernández’s pastime into household time. His gathering obsession has even turned into a facet enterprise for the three-time World Series Champion.
Hernández created his own social media channels under the identify “PokéKikémon,” his Pokémon- impressed alter ego. His Instagram account alone has over 112,000 followers and spawned its own line of merchandise.
“Not only do I get my fix, but it also helps us connect as a family,” Hernández said. “It’s something that we look forward to.”
We requested Hernández what’s the best pull he’s ever had to date. His reply was a Japanese Sabrina’s Gengar 1st version that sells for over $10,000 on some assortment websites.
“I pulled it and got it graded a [PSA] 10. So that is definitely my best one, for sure,” said Hernandez.
Kiké Hernández opens up a pack of playing cards.
But every collector has a holy grail and there’s one card that Hernández desires that still haunts him. It’s a 2001 Japanese Corocoro promotional card whose shining Mew tail swirl art work caught his eye before the value climbed between $75,000 and $500,000 on assortment websites.
“CoroCoro Mew is a card that I love the art of,” said Hernández. “I didn’t pull the trigger last year when I wanted it, and now it’s gotten a little too expensive. So it’s a card that I’ll probably be chasing forever.”
And possibly that’s half the enjoyable of gathering.
Hernández began his Pokémon card gathering journey making an attempt to discover something to fill the lonely hours away from baseball. Instead, somewhere between Pikachu, Charizard, Squirtle and Gengar, he discovered something he could share with his daughter lengthy after the remaining out.
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