The Rangers intend to get Joc Pederson work at first base this spring, manager Bruce Bochy said (link via Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). While the Rangers still plan to use him primarily as a designated hitter, they could get him occasional first base work over the course of the season.
Pederson was a full-time DH with the Diamondbacks last season. He’s never been a good defender, but that was the first time in which a team kept him off the field entirely. Pederson had played regularly in the outfield before that. He broke in as a center fielder with the Dodgers but had moved more or less to a corner role by 2019.
Bochy downplayed the chance of using Pederson in the outfield at Globe Life Field. “I would imagine he could go out there, but I think the focus is more at first base right now, to help out a little bit. I don’t envision needing more depth in the outfield,” the veteran skipper told Grant and other reporters. “He hasn’t been over there very much, so I imagine he’s got a little rust on him. But he’s taken some ground balls already and we’ll make a call later. We think it’s going to work.”
Pederson has played 154 major league innings at first base. He made a pair of late-game appearances there for the Giants two seasons ago. His only 19 career starts as a first baseman came with Los Angeles back in 2019. He committed six errors in 149 innings, leading to very poor defensive metrics in that tiny sample. It’s an unfamiliar position, but it’s not uncommon for corner outfielders to log occasional first base action.
Texas should have a strong defensive outfield. They’re lined up with Wyatt Langford, Evan Carter and Adolis García as their starting trio. Leody Taveras is on hand as a quality fourth outfielder who can step into everyday center field work if Carter has any kind of recurrence of last year’s injury issues.
First base is a little less established. The Rangers traded Nathaniel Lowe to Washington for reliever Robert Garcia. That came on the heels of acquiring corner infielder Jake Burger from Miami. He’s lined up for the majority of playing time at first base. Burger doesn’t have great on-base skills but brings a lot of right-handed pop. He has respectively hit 34 and 29 homers over the past two years. While he divided his playing time equally between the corner infield spots for the Fish, he’s unlikely to play much third base on a team that has Josh Jung and Josh Smith.
Pederson will work primarily as a designated hitter against right-handed pitching. Burger has had neutral platoon splits for his career. He’ll play frequently against righties, but there’s little harm in testing if Pederson can adequately step in on occasion. That’d also give Bochy some flexibility to get García or Langford off their feet at times, potentially drawing Taveras into the lineup on days when Texas wants a stronger defensive outfield.
I’ve seen him attempt to play 1B and it was not pretty
This is not a good idea.
Yeah he’s one big error after another
Yeah, he’s a bit too full-figured for playing the field anymore.
I’m not gonna read too heavily into it. First week of spring training drills. Sure, it’ll help having Pederson capable of playing 1B in case stuff happens but this first week is just about getting all the players up to game speed.
What TF is he wearing in this image haha? I didn’t expect Joc to dress like one of my 15 year old students
Arenado and Helsley for Jung and a lotto ticket makes sense
not really. The Rangers are trying to get below the tax.
How did the Rangers convince him? He had pushed back on the previous 4 or 5 teams he played for wanting him to try 1B.
And what can the Red soc learn from this after Mookie was loudly against to bat leadoff, Matt Strahm against being a reliever, and Devers demanding to play 3B?
Highly doubt that he’ll ever sniff first base unless he’s on offense. It’s like day 5 or 6 of spring training workouts.
It’s Spring Training…
Oh, boy, I remember his brief trial at first base with the Dodgers. Not pretty. Not pretty at all.
Fun fact: Jake Burger had a higher sprint speed than Joc Pederson last year
Someone also previously posted that Burger’s sprint speed was higher than SS Willy Adames too. This shocked me on Adames, but it’s not as big a shock with Joc.
I think Pederson may end up getting corner outfield reps during the season anyhow. Rangers are talking about scaling back Carter’s reps. Maximum of 3 consecutive games on turf, and his home, Globe Life Field, is turf.
Is Joc itching to play first
“It’s not thard hard. Tell him Wash”
“It’s incredibly hard”…
Joc is strictly a platoon DH because of his splits. He will hit some Hrs in bunches then disappear for a couple weeks. He should never touch the field on defense. He’s always overweight and lazy. Tommy Pham takes his lunch money everyday
Can’t wait til Tommy gets on base
I still laugh about Pham trying to flex with the martial arts during his hissy fit over Luke Voit
Can’t agree with the statement that Pederson has never been a good defender. He was perfectly adequate in CF in his first few seasons with the Dodgers, and not terrible in RF either. It’s fair to say he’s gone downhill on defense, but not to say he was never any good.
Early on, Joc was a very good CF. Unfair to say he was never a good defender.
Hey, when you don’t have an everyday 1B you just convert a position player into one. How hard can it be, right?
I don’t know who looked worst at 1st, him or J Hey.
Pederson had 5 tools when he broke in. Probably 30 pounds ago, though.
As an Astros fan, I hope he starts all 162 games at first for the Rangers.
At first glance I thought Joc was sporting a Krispy Kreme ball cap.