Rangers add power lefty bat Joc Pederson

Texas Rangers fans awoke to a surprise Monday morning as at 3:50 am, it was reported by Ken Rosenthal that the Rangers and Joc Pederson had come to an agreement on a deal. Pederson, 32 will be in his 12th year in the big leagues and Texas will be his 6th team he’s played for since 2020 once the contract is finalized with a physical. 

This move comes after weeks of speculation that the Rangers and Joc have been in constant and deep conversations throughout the entire free agency process. To go along with that this move comes less than 24 hours after the announcement at the Rangers had traded first baseman Nathaniel Lowe for LHP Robert Garcia freeing up some cash and adding a need for a lefty bat. It only took Chris Young and Company around 12 hours to acquire the replacement

Joc Pederson coming off the best year of his career slashed .275/.393/.515 slugging 23 long balls in just 367 ABs with all but 32 of them facing RHP’s ranking him in the upper 95% of Batting Value whether it’s his average exit velo of 92.3mph off the bat, or him being in the upper 6% percentile in walks this past year. Pederson will provide a big spring for this offense that was having problems in 2024. 

Pederson has made a career out of hammering the baseball, having a career slugging of .469 with a OPS+ of 119. Joc has also competed in two home run derby’s in his career. Pederson proved this past season that he can still be an All-Star caliber player and the Rangers awarded him with a 2 Year Contract for $37 Million with an option after just the first year of the contract. 

Aside from the obvious of Joc being a great offensive addition to the lineup, it can’t be understated how much of a big time presence he’ll be in the locker room especially now with the absence of Nathaniel Lowe. What he brings to the table is a positional leader who’s been in the league for 10+ years with a big voice which is seemingly what the Rangers needed last year, along with that Joc has been apart of numerous club houses along with 2 championship winning ones which will provide an even bigger presence in the locker room and can’t be stated just how valuable that can be to a locker room. 

One final thing to note is I’m sure Rangers WS MVP Shortstop had a little bit to do with Joc choosing Texas over other possible suitors as the pair spent the better part of 4 years together in Dodger Blue before Joc left signing a 1 year deal in the 2020-2021 offseason with the Cubs. But now 4 years later they will be teammates once again having their sights set on October.