‘Pure entertainment all the time’: What Joc Pederson brings to SF Giants
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Bengie Molina was eating an ice cream sandwich. It was an hour to first pitch. Joc Pederson, then a senior at Palo Alto High School, was getting his first taste of big league life after getting pulled into the Giants clubhouse by a family friend.
“I’m like, ‘The big leagues is the best! This is amazing,'” Pederson, 29, recalled Thursday from inside a different Giants clubhouse, the newly renovated one inside Scottsdale Stadium, where he arrived that morning after signing a one-year, $6 million deal with his hometown club.
Since that seminal 2010 moment — hopping the railing of then-AT&T Park, meeting Pablo Sandoval, who gave him a pair of batting gloves unaware that they would team up a decade later in Atlanta — Pederson has accrued a wealth of postseason experience and refined a powerful swing from the left-hand side of the plate, two qualities the Giants hope can round out a team that won 107 games last season and has its sights set on something more than a first-round exit from the playoffs.
“I think he’ll fit in great with our clubhouse,” said Alex Wood, who was reunited with Pederson after four years together with the Dodgers from 2015-18. “He’s not scared of the spotlight. He likes the big moments, and he tends to do well in them. That’s the kind of player we’re looking for and need in our clubhouse.”
Pederson has made the postseason in every one of his seven professional seasons, including four trips to the World Series. He became known last season during the Braves’ World Series run for wearing pearls around his neck, and was sporting a necklace of black beads, just beneath a head of bleach-blond hair styled into a messy mohawk, as he took his first batting practice cuts inside Scottsdale Stadium.
“He’s pure entertainment all the time,” Wood said. “It’s just Joc, man. He loves to have a good time and loves to play ball.”
No pearls for Joc Pederson, just some great hair pic.twitter.com/JTg1NPaz0r
— Evan Webeck (@EvanWebeck) March 17, 2022
On the same day Pederson inked his deal, though, the Giants’ path back to the postseason was made more difficult by a couple of splashy signings within their division. The Rockies shelled out $182 million for Kris Bryant, while the Dodgers gave Freddie Freeman $160 million. The Giants, meanwhile, appear content entering the season with Pederson as the primary upgrade to their lineup, which loses Bryant and Buster Posey.
“From a roster standpoint he really fits us well, the way Kap manages the roster and tries to match up,” Farhan Zaidi, the Giants’ president of baseball operations, said. “He’s been one of the best power hitters against righties his whole career at the big league level. … We still really believe in the talent. When he’s in the batter’s box, he can do things in the batter’s box that not a lot of guys at the big league level can do. … On pure ability, he ranks really highly on our list. It’s just our responsibility and his responsibility to get that out of him.”
Newest #SFGiants addition Joc Pederson takes some hacks pic.twitter.com/tAAk6tFn90
— Evan Webeck (@EvanWebeck) March 17, 2022
Under Zaidi, the Giants have not given out a contract worth more than the $44 million they promised to Carlos Rodon or longer than the three years they committed to Anthony DeSclafani. Avoiding expensive, long-term deals might seem to be an organizational philosophy at this point, but Zaidi strongly refuted that impression.
“That’s just not the case,” Zaidi said. “We’ve talked a lot about the benefit of flexibility. But there’s no hard-and-fast rule about maximum years or maximum dollars. We certainly made offers beyond those numbers. … There are big free agents out there and one team signs them and 29 don’t. You’re going to be among the 29 more than you are the one that does it. … that doesn’t mean that there aren’t players getting big contracts that we would love to have and we were involved with.”
Zaidi said the Giants, whose payroll currently sits at about $135 million, below last season’s total and almost $100 million below the luxury tax threshold, have the financial flexibility to add more pieces but indicated the group they have is more or less the one they will start the season with.
“I do think we’re at a point now where we’ll be having a discussion about a player and you have to say, well, who’s coming off the roster; who’s losing at bats?” Zaidi said. “We kind of like the composition of our roster right now. Any additions do come at that cost.”
The fit with Pederson was so obvious, it almost happened a year ago. Zaidi, whose relationship with Pederson dates back to their time in Los Angeles, pursued Pederson last offseason but the outfielder opted for an everyday role in Chicago and was eventually dealt to Atlanta.
Finally playing for the team he grew up rooting for — yes, he confirmed he was a Giants fan as a kid, despite his father spending 12 years in the Dodgers organization — was “surreal,” Pederson said. Now a fully grown adult, Pederson has two kids of his own, and both sets of their grandparents reside in the Bay Area.
When Pederson arrived in the clubhouse Thursday morning, he was greeted by a locker next to his for his brother, Champ, who has down syndrome and has played a major role in Pederson’s life.
“I sent him a picture. … He’s going to be thrilled,” Pederson said. “Continuously talking with players … you kind of know which places are more first-class than others. I’d only heard great things, then I show up today and his locker is there. … I think it shows the first-class organization they are.”
On the field, Pederson has a long track record of mashing right-handed pitching — a career .832 on-base-plus-slugging — but struggled to replicate the same success with the Dodgers in 2020 and again in 2021. Pederson finished 2021 with a batting line of .238/.310/.422 and didn’t fare any better against left-handers.
The Giants will slot Pederson in at their corner outfield spots and at designated hitter. They hope by minimizing his exposure to left-handers that they can extract the same kind of production that led to 123 home runs in his first four big league seasons.
As Pederson struggled on his own “prove-it” deal last season, it was hard not to notice the success other players were having in San Francisco, whether it be the career year of Brandon Crawford or such breakouts as Darin Ruf.
“Farhan and Gabe have built and unbelievable culture and environment here that is adapting to all personalities,” Pederson said. “You could definitely see it from the outside looking in. I wanted to be a part of it and do whatever we can to win another World Series here.”
Pederson was drafted by the Dodgers in 2010, sometime between his sneak peek of big league life and the Giants’ World Series title that October. Back home after a short introductory stint with the Dodgers’ rookie league team, Pederson gathered his friends from Palo Alto and headed north to Market Street for the Giants’ World Series parade.
Twelve years later, Pederson has been a participant in the past two ticker-tape parades as a member of the Braves last season and in his final year with the Dodgers in 2020.
Pederson is optimistic about the chances of a third parade in as many years. And observant.
“I did grow up in the Bay Area,” he said. “2022 is an even year.”