Joc Pederson Bio
Joc Russell Pederson is an American professional baseball outfielder and first baseman for the Texas Rangers of Major League Baseball (MLB). He has previously played in MLB for the Los Angeles Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves, San Francisco Giants, and Arizona Diamondbacks. He is a two-time World Series champion and a two-time All-Star. The son of former MLB player Stu Pederson, Joc was drafted by the Dodgers in the 11th round of the 2010 MLB draft out of Palo Alto High School. By virtue of his Jewish heritage, he played for the Israel national baseball team in the 2013 World Baseball Classic and 2023 World Baseball Classic. He was ranked the Dodgers’ top prospect by Baseball America after the 2013 season. In 2014, he was named the Pacific Coast League (PCL) Most Valuable Player after hitting 30 home runs and stealing 30 bases, and he made his major league debut that September. Beginning the 2015 season as the Dodgers’ starting center fielder, Pederson was selected to start for the National League All-Star team. He became the first Dodger to hit at least 25 home runs in each of his first two seasons, with 25 in 2016. Pederson hit three home runs in the 2017 World Series, which the Dodgers lost to the Houston Astros. Pederson returned to the World Series in 2018 with the Dodgers, hitting a home run in Game 3 as the Dodgers lost to the Boston Red Sox. In 2019, he hit a career-high 36 home runs. In 2020, he had four hits in 10 at bats in the World Series as the Dodgers won the championship. He signed a one-year deal with the Chicago Cubs, and was traded mid-season to the Atlanta Braves as they won the World Series, making him the ninth player in Major League history to win back-to-back World Series with different teams. Following the 2021-22 lockout, Pederson signed a one-year contract with his hometown San Francisco Giants, and made his second career All-Star Game.
Early Life and Background
Pederson was born in Palo Alto, California, and is the son of Shelly (née Cahn) and Stu Pederson. Stu played in eight games for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1985 and spent 12 years in Minor League Baseball. Joc’s mother was an athletic trainer in college. He is Jewish by birth (his mother is Jewish) and has played for the Israel national baseball team. Pederson’s Jewish maternal great-great-great-grandfather and great-great-great-uncle immigrated to the United States in the 1840s and were charter members of synagogue Temple Emanuel in San Francisco. His great-great-grandfather Leopold Cahn, great-grandmother Zelda Sugarman, and great-great-grandmother Fannie Morris were born in San Francisco. Pederson grew up a San Francisco Giants fan. Joc’s older brother, Tyger, played baseball for the University of the Pacific and then played second base in the Dodgers minor league system. Joc’s eldest brother, Champ, has Down syndrome and sometimes stays with him during the season. His younger sister, Jacey, played soccer as a forward for the United States national under-17 team and played college soccer for the UCLA Bruins. Through 2022, Pederson was second among Jewish baseball players in career home run frequency, seventh in career home runs, and eighth in career slugging percentage.
Path to Baseball
Pederson attended Palo Alto High School. In his senior year, Pederson batted .466 with a .577 on-base percentage and an .852 slugging percentage, with 20 stolen bases in 22 attempts, playing center field and leading off for the school’s baseball team. He also played for the school’s football team, leading it with 30 receptions in his senior year, for 650 yards and 9 touchdowns. Pederson was the team’s number one wide receiver, racking up more yards and touchdowns than his teammate, future NFL two-time All Pro First Team wide receiver Davante Adams, who was a Junior at the time. Pederson graduated in 2010. In the 11th round of the 2010 MLB draft, Pederson was selected by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had committed to play at the University of Southern California, where his father played college baseball, but Joc chose instead to sign with the Dodgers. He was given a $600,000 signing bonus to sign with the Dodgers. The bonus was the second-highest given to any draft pick the Dodgers signed that year, and it was four times the amount typically given to players drafted after the fifth round. Pederson had wanted more money, but he chose to accept their offer because he realized his dream was to become a star in the big leagues.
Joc Pederson Career
Early Career (2014–2015)
With major league rosters expanding to 40 players for September, Pederson was added to the Dodgers’ 40-man roster and called up to the Majors for the first time on September 1, 2014. Manager Don Mattingly said, “The people in our organization that have seen him the most say he’s the best center fielder in our organization.” That night against the Washington Nationals, with the Dodgers trailing 6–4 with two outs and two runners on base, Pederson pinch-hit for pitcher Yimi García. He took Rafael Soriano to a full count but was called out on strikes to end the game. He started in center field the following day and picked up his first Major League hit on a single off of Doug Fister in the second inning. In 18 games, he had four hits in 28 at bats. Baseball America named Pederson the #8 prospect in 2015, and MLB.com ranked him the 13th-best prospect in baseball going into the 2015 season. The offseason trade of Matt Kemp created an opening in center field, and Pederson was named the Opening Day starting center fielder, beating out the veteran Andre Ethier for the position. He hit his first MLB home run on April 12 off of A. J. Schugel of the Arizona Diamondbacks in a 7–4 victory. On May 1, he hit his first major league grand slam off of Rubby De La Rosa of the Diamondbacks, a 446-foot blow. Pederson homered in both games of a day-night doubleheader on June 2; his second homer travelled an estimated 480 feet.
Breakthrough (2015–2020)
Pederson was selected to the National League squad in the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the first Dodgers rookie to be selected as an All-Star since Hideo Nomo in 1995. He became the first Dodgers rookie position player to ever start in an All-Star game. He was also selected to participate in the 2015 Home Run Derby. The #4 seed, Pederson made it all the way to the final round, losing 15–14 to Todd Frazier. However, Pederson’s performance tailed off in June and July. He batted .230 with 20 home runs before the All-Star Game, but he would only hit six in the second half of the season, batting .178 for the remainder of the season. On August 23, Pederson lost his starting center fielder job due to his extended slump. In 151 games in 2015, he hit .210/.346/.417 with 26 homers, 67 runs, 54 RBIs, and 92 walks. His batting average was the lowest among qualified hitters. He tied the lowest RBI total ever by a player with 25 or more homers. His exit velocity on a batted ball of 114.3 mph was in the top 4% of all major leaguers. At the conclusion of the season, he was selected to Baseball America’s All-Rookie team. The Dodgers won the NL West title, and Pederson reached the playoffs for the first time as Los Angeles faced the New York Mets in the 2015 NL Division Series. He had starts in Games 1 and 5 of the series but was hitless as the Dodgers fell to the Mets in five games. Despite losing his starting role late in the 2015 season, Pederson began 2016 as the Dodgers’ center fielder once again, though he would serve in a platoon role, mainly playing against right-handers. He hit solo home runs against Jered Weaver and A. J. Achter on May 17 in a 5–1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Against the Diamondbacks on June 14, he hit two solo home runs against Archie Bradley in a 7–4 victory. Pederson appeared in 137 games in 2016, batting 246/.352/.495 with 25 home runs, 25 doubles, and 68 RBIs. His 25 home runs averaged a distance of 412.1 feet, and he saw 4.18 pitches-per-plate-appearance. He became the first Dodger to hit 25 home runs in each of his first two seasons. For the second year in a row, Pederson reached the playoffs as the Dodgers clinched their fourth straight NL West title. In the third inning of Game 4 of the 2016 NLDS against the Nationals, Pederson had a painful RBI, driving in a run when Joe Ross hit him with a pitch with the bases loaded. Pederson later had an RBI double in the fifth inning against Reynaldo López, and the Dodgers won 6–5. His home run against Max Scherzer in the seventh inning of Game 5 forced Scherzer from the game and opened the scoring for the Dodgers, who won 4–3 to advance to the NL Championship Series against the Chicago Cubs. In Game 3 of the NLCS, he had an RBI single against Mike Montgomery and scored a run as the Dodgers beat the Cubs 6–0. He had four hits in 21 at bats in the series, scoring three runs, but the Dodgers fell to the Cubs in six games. Pederson started the 2017 season strong, hitting a grand slam home run on Opening Day against the San Diego Padres. It was the first grand slam by a Dodger hitter on Opening Day since Eric Karros hit one on April 3, 2000, against Montreal. His five Opening Day RBIs were the most by a Dodger since Raúl Mondesí drove in six in 1999 against the Diamondbacks. The Dodgers won the NL West for the fifth year in a row, but Pederson was left off their roster for the start of the playoffs. He was added to the roster for the 2017 NLCS because of an injury to All-Star shortstop Corey Seager. Pederson was used mainly off the bench in the series, though he did get a start in Game 3; the Dodgers won the series in five games. Seager returned for the 2017 World Series against the Houston Astros, and Granderson was left off the roster to make room for him, opening up playing time for other Dodger outfielders. In the World Series, Pederson broke a Dodgers postseason record that had been established in 1953, as he had extra-base hits in five consecutive games. He hit a fifth-inning home run against Justin Verlander in Game 2, the first hit of the game for the Dodgers, though they would go on to lose 7–6. In Game 4, with the Dodgers leading 3–1 in the top of the ninth, Pederson hit a three-run home run against Joe Musgrove, adding insurance as the Dodgers won 6–2. In 18 at bats, he batted .333/.400/.944 and led the Dodgers in runs and home runs, while tying for the team lead in doubles and RBIs. However, the Dodgers would fall to the Astros in seven games. Before the 2018 season, Pederson signed a one-year, $2.6 million contract with the Dodgers, avoiding salary arbitration. He spent much of the season in a platoon role in left field. In 2019, he played in 149 games, hitting .249/.339/.538 with 36 home runs and 74 RBIs in 450 at bats, and was 5th in the NL and tied for 5th of all Dodgers ever with a home run every 12.5 at bats. In the first game of the 2019 NLDS against the Washington Nationals, Pederson smashed the hardest-hit Dodgers home run of the year. The Dodgers won that game 6–0. Pederson was awarded a $7.5 million salary for the 2020 season after losing an arbitration hearing with the Dodgers. In early 2020, Pederson and Ross Stripling were nearly traded to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for Luis Rengifo, but the trade fell through. The MLB season did not start until July 24 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, Pederson batted .190/.285/.397 with 21 runs, seven home runs, and 16 RBIs in 121 at bats. In Game 5 of the 2020 World Series, Pederson hit the fifth home run of his World Series career, a second-inning solo shot against Tyler Glasnow that proved to be the winning margin of victory in Los Angeles’s 4–2 triumph. In the World Series, Pederson had four hits in 10 at bats as the Dodgers won the championship.
Notable Works and Milestones
Joc Pederson is known for his significant contributions to his teams, including being a two-time World Series champion and a two-time All-Star. He has made a name for himself with his impressive home run records and his ability to perform in high-pressure situations, such as the playoffs.
Joc Pederson Award Nominations
Throughout his career, Joc Pederson has received several nominations for his outstanding performances, particularly during his early years with the Los Angeles Dodgers, where he was recognized as a top prospect and an All-Star.
Joc Pederson Awards Won
Joc Pederson has achieved notable accolades in his career, including being a two-time World Series champion in 2020 and 2021, and a two-time All-Star in 2015 and 2022. His achievements highlight his impact on the game and his contributions to his teams’ successes.
