MLB expert's historic Yankees comp for Dodgers' Kiké Hernández is so right it hurts

When Brian Cashman tells Yankees fans for the 16th consecutive season that October baseball is a crapshoot, they'll scoff. After all, with a payroll like New York sports, it should be far simpler to all but guarantee October success. But what Cashman really means is that it's near-impossible to predict the right chemistry mix and match for the most spotlit month of the year. Which role player represents the secret ingredient, a la Jose Iglesias for the 2024 Mets? Which bullpen piece lives for the moment? And which regular-season glue guy rises to the occasion with regularity?

Usually, October Heroes ride a small-sample size wave to brief dominance before regressing in a future October. Steve Pearce can only be Steve Pearce in 2018. Cody Ross? He was only all-caps CODY ROSS once. Edgar Renteria? The walk-off winner in 1997, a 2010 rampage that will go down in San Francisco lore ... but check his record. He had some empty series in there.

Nonetheless, sometimes, on a very rare occasion, there's a diamond buried in that rough who shines annually when the calendar turns. There are once-in-a-generation players who can repeatedly slow their heartbeats, then slide back into Affable Goofball Mode the second they reach the dugout steps. Year in and year out, these chaotic contributors just keep pounding, to the chagrin of all their befuddled opponents who can barely recognize the guy they saw in July.

Kiké Hernández, for both the Dodgers and Red Sox, has been the postseason performer who's helped define out-of-nowhere October prowess for the current generation. And forgive MLB Network's Brian Kenny for the perfect cross-generational comp, Yankees fans, but he really does feel like the new-age Billy Martin.

Yankee Killer Kiké Hernández of the Dodgers really does give off Billy Martin vibes in October

"Two outs, two strikes ... just looking for a little base hit," Kenny waxed poetic about Hernández's bygone skillset after the Dodgers' Game 2 victory in Milwaukee last Tuesday (during which the under-the-radar veteran was the igniter yet again.

"Billy Martin was this guy," he continued. "Not a big hitter ... the Yankees said, we win titles when Martin is playing."

We don't want it to be true. After all, Hernández has victimized the Yankees plenty over the years (.278 in last year's World Series, and he sparked Dodgers rallies in both the fifth and eighth inning in the infamous Game 5). But we can't deny it.

The splits tell the full story. Hernández and Martin were both below-average regular season performers, according to wRC+ (91 and 80, respectively, where 100 represents the average). In the postseason? 138 and 151, among the game's elite.

Martin's playoff contributions, as well as his managerial legacy, have some biased Yankee fans requesting a place for him in the Hall of Fame to this day. Another one or two title runs of the same caliber — and a career on the bench after his playing days are done? — and you might start to hear a Dodger Blue-colored case for Kiké as well.