That's a trick question, isn't it?
(I agree. Yu Chang must play shortstop until, at a minimum, Story can.)
I mean, I do feel a bit bad for the guy. He has + CF defense to his credit, and probably can hit better than this. OPS by Month: April - .716; May - .590; June - .555; July - .294.
But the OF is crowded, and I don't see a way to justify starting him against LHH or RHH with Yoshida, Verdugo, Duran, Refsnyder, and Duvall available. (I mean in terms of "trying to get guys going again" you play Duvall before Hernandez, I think.)
So that leaves the IF. If Hernandez can hold down 2B, that's sort of OK, maybe, as a placeholder. . .but not if he displaces Arroyo or Reyes.
-Arroyo is a RHH who has a platoon split, has a fairly stable hitting history, and has hit well in July.
-Reyes is a RHH who has a SSS this year, but at a rough guess can possibly manage a .700 OPS.
Either way they're both outhitting Hernandez on the year, and they're trending in opposite directions from Hernandez.
-Chang is a RHH who has occasional pop. He's not really a true "surprise breakout" candidate any more, but he's also shown streaks of adequacy, and thus (sadly) has a hope of breaking even with Hernandez's output this year.
-Hernandez is a RHH who last had a decent month at the plate in April of this year. Before that the last time he OPSed above .690 was August of 2021 (or the post season of that year.)
You put a RHH Story in that mix, and Hernandez would be the first to go, followed by Chang.
***
If Hernandez's 2021 season was replicate-able, yes, he's a keeper. If he had a kind of "hot streak" ability to hit above .700 for a solid month or so, while playing a good 2B/CF, he
might also be a keeper. But the second is far from certain at this point, and the first seems pretty unlikely - apart from something like an off-season to retool the swing and whatnot for a late-career swan-song-season.
I'd keep him for the rest of the season
if he played GG SS and was guaranteed to be just this crappy with the bat. He'd fill the defensive SS/CF role with emergency 2B/OF coverage. But he's limited himself to CF at this point defensively.
I think he's a good change-of-scenery candidate. . .or at least a dark-horse for that.