Dodgers: Joc Pederson’s Blurry Future in Los Angeles

We’ve all grown to love the baby face Joc Pederson over his first few big league seasons. However, he has been struggling to find his stroke all season and was just relegated to the minor leagues to try and fix himself. With him now sitting in Oklahoma City, will he find himself in the Dodgers’ playoff picture or even in their future plans?

In the wake of the Curtis Granderson acquisition, we were left scrambling to see who on the Dodgers would get replaced. Ultimately, the news broke that struggling outfielder Joc Pederson would be sent down to AAA to work on his struggles at the plate. Pederson’s slash line this season is a terrible .215/.329/.418 with 11 home runs. It’s been a terrible season for Joc in just about every aspect of his game, and it was getting worse by the day.

While his trip down to the minors may help him fix his problems in a low-pressure situation, there is only so much you can do with a guy like Joc. To me, his problem has always been his inability to find a swing and stance that he’s comfortable with so he tends to tinker around and mess up his entire swing.

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While he may be in the minors, for now, don’t expect him to stay there long because he’ll probably be back up with the big league club as soon as September call-ups come around.

However, October is a whole other story. The hero of last season’s Game 5 showdown with the Nationals may have played his way out of a playoff spot and will have to prove himself to be more valuable over guys like Granderson and Kike Hernandez.

I expect Joc to at least make the NLDS roster, purely for his clubhouse presence, but if he continues to struggle, he will not be on the roster for possible NLCS and World Series appearances.

Looking even further into the future brings, even more, doubt into the situation for Pederson. Next season, the Dodgers expect Andrew Toles back and Alex Verdugo to be on the big league roster come opening day. Will Joc even have a spot on this team? My gut says yes, but my brain is doing the math, and it doesn’t seem to like his chances.

So, if Joc isn’t on the team what can the Dodgers possibly get for him? Well, Joc has shown shades of being a 30 home run guy who can play average defense. Couple that with his youth and his cheap contract and Los Angeles has a nice trade chip in the 25-year-old.

He might be able to fetch them a nice bullpen addition or maybe even some depth to the rotation, but at the end of the day, Joc’s future in LA doesn’t look too bright.

Yes, we all love Joc for his antics on the field and in the dugout, but at the end of the day the game comes down to production. If he isn’t producing then he won’t have a spot on this team; it’s that straightforward.

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With so much of the Dodgers’ depth being in the outfield, he may be forced out of big league roster come playoff time. And if we look a little further ahead, he may be pushed out of LA altogether.