One day, the pain would be in his groin. The next day it would be in his abdomen. Then it would shift to his hips or his adductors or his quadriceps.

For much of the last two seasons, Kiké Hernández played through discomfort that ranged from annoying to excruciating, the utility man sitting out about one-third of the 2022 season with Boston because of injuries and gritting through one of the worst seasons of his career for the Red Sox and Dodgers in 2023.

But with his trade back to Los Angeles last summer came some relief in the form of a diagnosis that multiple MRI tests failed to reveal: Hernández, it turned out, had been playing with not one but two sports hernias, and he underwent surgery to repair them on Oct. 24 with Dr. William Meyers in Philadelphia.

“It was probably the first time ever I’ve been excited that somebody told me I needed surgery,” said Hernández, a 10-year veteran who signed a one-year, $4-million deal with the Dodgers on Feb. 26.

“It was frustrating because I was having a lot of pain, but the MRIs were clean. It wasn’t until I got to Philly that Dr. Meyers was like, ‘Yeah, these hernias don’t really show up in the MRI, and you have to know what you’re looking at to be able to tell.’ ”

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Hernández, 32, credits Dr. Keith Pyne, a medical adviser to the Dodgers, with making an initial diagnosis.

“He said all the symptoms I was having are pointing to a sports hernia,” Hernández said, “because I had pain in different places every single day.”

Given a full three months over the winter to recover and another month of baseball activities before he signed, Hernández believes he will be much better positioned to be an impact player this season.

“The last few years, I haven’t been myself, and it showed in the numbers,” Hernández said. “But I feel great, I feel strong, I feel I’m where I need to be to put myself in the best position to help the team in whatever capacity it needs. Now, it’s just about getting back into the rhythm of baseball because I signed late.”

Hernández spent six years (2015-20) with the Dodgers, slugging three homers in the 2017 National League Championship Series Game 5 clincher over the Chicago Cubs and helping them reach the World Series in 2018 and win it in pandemic-shortened 2020, before signing a two-year, $14-million deal with the Red Sox.

He had a strong 2021, batting .250 with a .786 on-base-plus-slugging percentage, 20 homers and 60 RBIs in 134 games to help Boston make a surprise run to the American League Championship Series, but a series of hip and core muscle injuries limited him to 93 games in 2022, when he hit just .222 with a .629 OPS, six homers and 45 RBIs.