Dodgers Who Need to Start Fresh with the New Year

Joc Pederson, Trayce Thompson

Now we come to the guys who truly disappointed in 2017 and need the calendar to change to 2018. Say what you want about Joc’s impressive World Series performance, but there is no denying that he was bad in 2017. He missed time due to injury but was disappointing when on the field. He hit .212/.331/.407 with 11 home runs in 323 plate appearances. He even accumulated a -0.4 WAR in his 102 games, according to Baseball Reference.

It got so bad that he was demoted to Triple-A in August (where he got even worse) and left off the NLDS roster. After being such a promising prospect for Los Angeles, and taking a step forward in 2016, he took three steps backward and has a lot of making up to do.

If you thought Joc was terrible, then you’d think he was an All-Star when you put him next to Trayce Thompson. Thompson battled injuries, but that wasn’t the main reason he only had 55 plate appearances for the big league club. The Dodgers’ depth doesn’t help, and neither does his .483 OPS. Yes, you read that correctly.

He accumulated a -0.3 WAR in his limited time and like Joc, struggled terribly in his minor league stints which spawned across 95 games (369 plate appearances). The Dodgers have such a glut of outfielders that another season like 2017 may officially signal the end of his career in blue. He probably wants to forget about 2017 the most from anyone on the team and take advantage of the fresh start.