Joc Pederson will be back with his hometown Giants next season after the slugger accepted San Francisco’s $19.65 million qualifying offer for 2023 on Tuesday.
It’s been an eventful past few years for Pederson, who will turn 31 in April. In 2020, he posted career-worst numbers during the pandemic-shortened season but came up big in the playoffs to help the Dodgers snap a long championship drought. He then tasted free agency for the first time, signing with the Cubs, but was flipped before the Trade Deadline to the Braves. In Atlanta, he became a style icon and the ninth player to win back-to-back World Series with different teams.
A free agent again, the native of Palo Alto, Calif., made the decision to return home to play for the Giants, flipping to the other side of the L.A.-San Francisco rivalry. While 2022 was ultimately a disappointment for the Giants, the club’s one-year, $6 million pact with Pederson worked out well. In his age-30 season, he made his second All-Star team and generated a career-high 144 OPS+ (.274/.353/.521), which ranked 15th in the Majors (minimum 400 plate appearances).
That was a vast improvement from Pederson’s production in 2020-21, although he remains mostly a platoon player. Of his 105 starts in 2022, only eight came against left-handed pitchers. Pederson’s career OPS is more than 200 points higher against righties (.840) compared with lefties (.623), and 158 of his 171 homers have come off right-handers. With that said, Pederson has held his own in those left-left matchups in limited opportunities since 2020 (.263/.346/.385 over 179 plate appearances).
Pederson stood out for his contact quality in 2022. Among MLB hitters, he ranked in the 98th percentile for average exit velocity (93.2 mph), 98th for hard-hit rate (52.1%), 95th for barrel rate (15.1%) and and 96th for expected slugging percentage (.502).
On the other hand, Pederson rated in only the 20th percentile for sprint speed, and his -11 Outs Above Average was fourth lowest among outfielders. While center field has been Pederson’s primary position over the course of his career, the Giants didn’t use him there at all in 2022, while he made 84 starts in left, 12 in right and nine at DH.