“I don’t know the answer,” Roberts said when asked if he expected any of his players to skip the visit. “It’s an individual choice – as it should be – and I don’t think anyone is judging anyone for going or not going. So I don’t know that answer.”
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Kiké Hernandez won’t be going – because he expects to be on a minor-league rehabilitation assignment. The utility player is currently on the injured list with an oblique strain. A year ago, first baseman Freddie Freeman was sidelined by an ankle injury and did not join the team on its White House visit.
But Hernandez was outspoken last year during the unrest over ICE raids in the Los Angeles area and posted a statement on social media saying he “cannot stand to see our community being violated, profiled, abused and ripped apart.”
Hernandez did attend the Dodgers’ White House visit in April 2025. When the planned visit this year was made official on Thursday, Hernandez responded to a comment on his Instagram account asking him not to go by saying, “I’m not.”
He deleted the response but he acknowledged Friday that his decision on the White House visit might be different this season – if he were on the active roster.
“I probably wouldn’t have gone,” said Hernandez, a native of Puerto Rico. “But being on a rehab assignment, taking at-bats is more important.”
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Roberts has said it is about the tradition not politics for him.
“I’ve always said – my company line, my personal line – is I hope that we get this invitation ever year,” Roberts said Friday. “Because that’s the goal – to win a championship, to get this invitation to the White House. I’m not a politician and I’m doing something that teams have done for decades. That’s where I stand, really. I’m a baseball coach. That’s what I do.”
Veteran infielder Miguel Rojas, a native of Venezuela, said he will be attending the White House visit and will also be part of a Dodgers’ group that will visit Capitol Hill that day.
STAR TURN
Right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto is scheduled to make his final start before the All-Star break on Saturday. Roberts said he wasn’t sure if that would eliminate Yamamoto as an option to pitch in the All-Star Game on Tuesday in Philadelphia.
“For me, that’s a read-and-react (decision),” Roberts said. “Let’s just get him through his start and we’ll see how he feels. And also, if he really wants it and it makes sense. Then we’ll have that conversation.”
UP NEXT
Diamondbacks (RHP Brandon Pfaadt, 2-1, 4.84 ERA) at Dodgers (RHP Yoshinobu Yamamoto, 9-5, 2.49 ERA), Saturday, 6:10 p.m., SportsNet LA, 570 AM
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