ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Joc Pederson and the Texas Rangers finalized a $37 million, two-year contract Monday after the designated hitter-outfielder successfully completed a physical.
The left-handed hitter’s introduction came a week after agreeing to the deal, which includes an opt-out for Pederson after the 2025 season. There is also a mutual option for an additional season in 2027.
Relief pitcher Grant Anderson was designated for assignment to make room on the Rangers’ 40-man roster.
Texas is the fifth team for Pederson since he played his first seven big league seasons with the Los Angeles Dodgers. His final year with them was their 2020 World Series championship.
That Dodgers title came during the COVID-impacted season with neutral-site playoffs. They played the National League Division Series, NL Championship Series and World Series at the Texas Rangers’ home stadium, where Pederson hit .394 (13 for 33) with three homers and eight RBIs in those 15 games.
Pederson, who will turn 33 in April, hit .275 with 23 homers and 64 RBIs in 132 games this year in his only season with Arizona. He is a career .241 hitter with 209 homers and 549 RBIs in 1,272 games, with career bests of 36 homers and 74 RBIs with the Dodgers in 2019.
After leaving Los Angeles in free agency, Pederson signed with the Chicago Cubs, who then traded him to Atlanta during the 2021 season. The two-time All-Star spent the 2022 and 2023 seasons with the San Francisco Giants before signing with Arizona in free agency last January.
Pederson could provide depth in the outfield and play some first base for the Rangers, even though he was only a designated hitter or pinch-hitter for the Diamondbacks. After entering that game as a pinch-hitter, he hasn’t played in the field since finishing in left field for the Giants on September 16, 2023. His last non-DH start was in left field 11 days before that.
Newly acquired Jake Burger is expected to be the Rangers’ primary first baseman after he was acquired from Miami in a trade for minor leaguers during the baseball winter meetings earlier this month. Texas has since traded Nathaniel Lowe to Washington for left-handed reliever Robert Garcia.
The Dodgers got Pederson in the 11th round of the 2010 amateur draft out of Palo Alto High in California.
Photo: Wiki Commons
