The Los Angeles Dodgers remain the No. 1 choice for All-Star outfielder Teoscar Hernández in free agency, but the two sides remain apart in contract negotiations, a source familiar with the negotiations told Dodgers Nation’s Doug McKain which he exclusively shared on the Dodgers Dougout Live Podcast Thursday night.

Hernández wants to re-sign with the Dodgers — as he has for the last few months — but the two sides remain apart on the average annual value and the signing bonus, per a source. Moreover, Hernández does not want any deferrals in his contract.

While the Dodgers remain Hernández’s preference, the new No. 2 team in the race is the Toronto Blue Jays.

Hernández is currently in Florida working out with Blue Jays star Vladimir Guerrero Jr., and would welcome a return to Toronto. While the Dodgers maintain their status as the favorite, Hernández would consider joining Toronto if their offer was significantly better — or, say, had a fourth year. Since Hernández has a qualifying offer attached to him, though, any non-Dodgers team that signs him would lose a draft pick.

While the Dodgers and Blue Jays remain the top two candidates to sign Hernández, there are other teams involved. The Boston Red Sox remain a possibility to sign Hernández. The New York Yankees remain involved, however, they’re prioritizing a left-handed bat, sources say.

While these four teams were known to be in on Hernández, Dodgers Nation’s Doug McKain has learned that two more teams are interested — and both are in the National League.

The Cincinnati Reds and Philadelphia Phillies have checked in on Hernández, however sources say there hasn’t been much progress made on either team.

So, there are now six teams in the Hernández sweepstakes: Dodgers, Blue Jays, Red Sox, Yankees, Phillies, and Reds. The first three teams have all made formal offers to Hernández, McKain has learned.

This week at the Winter Meetings, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts made it known he wanted the team to re-sign Hernández.

“It would be tough,” Roberts said when asked about potentially losing and replacing Hernández. “Obviously I’m a huge fan of Teo. We have a great relationship. His words, he loved everything about being a Dodger, and I’m always going to be a Teo fan. There’s not a whole lot of guys that can start 157, 158 ballgames and post and then to be that productive. Then you layer on being in a big market, helping us win a championship. So those players don’t come around very often. …

“It would be hard for me not to see him coming back.”

While Roberts didn’t hide his feelings of wanting Hernández back, president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman was understandably a little more subdued in his response.

“While we’re hopeful, at the same time, if he ends up signing somewhere else, we have no choice but to wish him well and on a personal level we’ll be really happy for him and professionally not so much,” Friedman said.

“He had a really good year. He put himself in a great position and I know he has talked about wanting to (re-sign), and I know that we have talked about him wanting to, and he and his family get to go through the interest and figure out what makes the most sense for them.”

While Hernández ultimately wants to stay in Los Angeles, there’s no current timeline for a deal to be consummated. However, at any moment, he could receive an offer from a team that pushes it across the finish line — whether it be from the Dodgers or someone else.

Dodgers Nation’s Doug McKain contributed to this report.