Dodgers’ Rumors: Don’t Rule Out a Joc Pederson Trade

The Dodgers and White Sox had trade discussions involving Joc Pederson earlier this off-season.  Those talks are apparently still going on.

Earlier this off-season the Dodgers had trade discussions involving Joc Pederson with the Chicago White Sox and it appears that those discussions are not dead yet.  The Chicago Tribune is reporting that there is still a chance that the White Sox could acquire Joc. It’s possible that the White Sox pursuit of Manny Machado is holding up a possible Joc deal and that this is one of the dominoes to fall once Machado signs somewhere.

Joc is currently set to battle it out for a starting role in left field with top Dodger prospect Alex Verdugo.  AJ Pollock will play center field and the Dodgers are going to play Cody Bellinger in right field when Pollock starts so the left field job is one of the few positions that the Dodgers need to sort out in spring training.  The Dodgers have been waiting to give Alex Verdugo his chance to shine in the majors so trading Joc would help accomplish that.

It’s unclear what the Dodgers would seek in return for Joc Pederson but it could be another move where Andrew Friedman seeks prospects to bolster the Dodgers’ farm system.  The Dodgers made a similar move when they traded away Matt Kemp, Alex Wood, and Yasiel Puig so this could be an identical move in trading depth for prospects.

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While Joc is a platoon player, he is still a valuable asset against right-handed pitching.  Last season, Joc rebounded to hit twenty-five home runs with a very good .843 OPS.  The 2018 season started off very strange for Pederson as he hit for average but the home runs did not come early on in the season.  He then exploded to hit ten home runs in June which set the pace for the rest of his season.

As the Dodgers look to avoid deploying as many platoons as they did last year, they could start Alex Verdugo every day no matter who is on the mound since he did hit lefties in the minor leagues.  Joc Pederson has already established that he cannot hit southpaw pitching and he hit just one home run against them in 2018.  While Joc is not the best defender he graded very solid in left field last year and could always be a designated hitter in the American League.

Trading Joc away would be another hit to the Dodgers’ outfield depth although they still have Andrew Toles who is fourth outfielder material and Enrique Hernandez and Chris Taylor are capable of filling in at left field when they are not playing second base.  With the season drawing closer by the day, it will be interesting to see if the Dodgers do in fact deal Joc Pederson away.