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Dodgers Rumors: NL rival could steal Joc Pederson from Los Angeles

ByAdam Weinrib|
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - APRIL 21: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers walks through the dugout before the game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on April 21, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - APRIL 21: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers walks through the dugout before the game against the Milwaukee Brewers at Miller Park on April 21, 2019 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images)

The Milwaukee Brewers might be the team that poaches Joc Pederson from the Los Angeles Dodgers.

We’ve always sort of, well, assumed that the least-likely Dodgers free agent to return from Los Angeles’ current core would be Joc Pederson.

Call it guessing or call it a pending overpay, but it just doesn’t seem like a platoon bat like Pederson will be LA’s first call during this critical free agency period. Of course, there’s also the little complicating factor that he was already traded last offseason to the Angels, a move that was bizarrely undone by Arte Moreno.

Just ahead of the Winter Meetings, we have our first genuine buzz about Pederson’s next stop — and it might just be a team that the Dodgers shooed away from the postseason in both 2020 and 2018.

Straight from Ken Rosenthal’s mouth, the current suitors for Pederson include, to some extent, the Cardinals, White Sox (always been a logical fit) and, yes, the Milwaukee Brewers.

If the Brewers were impressed enough with their playoff beatdowns these past few years that they’ve pivoted to targeting Dodgers, perhaps that’ll be a Justin Turner landing spot, too?

Pederson was a steady presence throughout LA’s World Series run, but his last great wire-to-wire season was 2019, when he posted a 127 wRC+ with 36 homers.

Somehow, due to some offseason chicanery, the outfield market got far more crowded last week with the additions of David Dahl, Kyle Schwarber and Adam Duvall. Pederson will still command among the largest deals of those options, though, and it’ll take a multi-year payday to secure his services (unless something goes very wrong).

If the Crew acquire Pederson, they’ll be getting a bonafide power bat who can split time with Avisail Garcia. By design, Garcia mashes lefties, whereas Pederson feasts off righties, hitting .238 with 121 home runs in his career.

Of the trio of fits, Milwaukee seems to make the most sense.

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