The Arizona Diamondbacks Continue their Productive Offseason, Sign Joc Pederson to a One-Year Deal
Phoenix, AZ (PSF) — Joc Pederson is staying in the National League West.
This Thursday, Pederson, 31, agreed to a one-year deal with the reigning NL West champion Diamondbacks, with a mutual option for 2025 according to Bob Nightengale.
After an all-star season for the San Francisco Giants in 2022 where he slashed .274/.353/.521/.874 with 23 home runs, 70 runs batted in, and a career-high 146 OPS+ (On-based Plus Slugging), it segued into Pederson unexpectedly being offered a $19.7 million qualifying offer. This was a surprise, as coming of a career-best season, many expected Pederson to get a somewhat lucrative multiyear deal. However, Pederson signed the qualifying offer, and returned to the Giants in 2023 for another season.
Regression was expected in 2023, which was the story of Pederson’s final season with the Giants. He slashed a disappointing .235/.348/.416 with 15 home runs, 51 runs batted in, and a 111 OPS+. He slashed his strikeout rate by about 3 percent and increased his walk rate from 9.7 percent to a well above-average 13.7%. Essentially, while Pederson saw a vast decline in power, he still got on base at a high level.
Although Pederson saw a decline in the surface level stats, the advanced metrics were still kind to him. While his 2022 batted balls in play indicated some regression (.310), the batted ball metrics indicated that part of his regression was a product of some bad luck as well:
Average Exit Velocity: average velocity of contact off the bat when contact was made
Hard Hit Percentage: Amount of balls that were hit that were classified as “hard hit” balls
Barrel Percentage: percentage of balls that were hit on the sweet spot of the barrel
Batting average on balls in play (BABIP): batting average on non home runs
2022:
Average Exit Velocity: 93.2 mph (top 2 percent of MLB)
Hard Hit Percentage: 52.3 percent (top 2% of MLB)
Barrel Percentage: 12.1 percent
BABIP: .310
2023:
Average Exit Velocity: 92.1 mph (top 8 percent of the MLB)
Hard Hit Percentage: 46.2 percent
Barrel Percentage: 11.1 percent
BABIP: .268
Although the hard-hit percentage declined, Pederson was still making quality contact with the ball, and had some bad luck on balls in play, referenced from that steep decline in his batting average on balls in play.
The decline in power was obvious, but it could have been a product of a decline in production against lefties. Strictly an option against right-handed pitching in 2023, with a .186/.327/.279 slash line and 1 home run against lefties last year, it was a far cry from the .245/.333/.408 slash line he posted against lefties in his 2022 all-star season in a similar amount of at-bats. Part of this decline in production could have been more overall consistencies as a hitter in 2023.
Pederson is strictly a DH (Designated Hitter) at this point in his career. Primarily the Giants’ left fielder in 2022, the unsightly defensive metrics that year (-11 defensive run value, -10 range run value) indicated that his poor defense allowed 11 more runs to score than the average zero and that his range was overall very poor.
Due to this, the Giants primarily DH’d him in 2023, with more than 500 fewer innings in the field than in 2022. However, this did not improve Pederson’s offense like anticipated, and even in significantly less defensive innings Pederson still graded out quite poorly in the field (-3 defensive run value, -3 range run value).
Arizona will likely be slotting him into the middle of their order as a strict DH, alongside another potential right-handed DH option such as J.D. Martinez or Jorge Soler.
Although there were some clubhouse issues, primarily distraction and effort-centered, that were linked to Pederson, the consensus from his time is that he is well-liked, a good teammate, and a productive hitter. Arizona needed an above-average left-handed bat for right-handed pitching, and Pederson should seamlessly slot into their lineup and provide an offensive boost.
Only two more teams to go in the NL West tour, Joc. Only San Diego and Colorado left!
