Joc an early gem for Giants

A couple weeks before Opening Day, the Giants made an under-the-radar deal to shore up an offense that lost middle-of-the-order stalwarts in Buster Posey and Kris Bryant, signing Joc Pederson to a one-year, $6 million deal.

After posting a below-average 93 wRC+ in 619 plate appearances between 2020 and 2021, the Bay Area native was looking to rediscover his form from 2014-19, when he hit 123 home runs and posted a 119 wRC+.

So far this season, the partnership has gone better than either party could have imagined, with Pederson off to the best start of his nine-year career. Before exiting with a groin injury on April 27, Pederson was hitting .353/.382/.745 with six homers, 10 RBIs and a 223 wRC+ through 55 plate appearances. Pederson has scuffled a bit since returning to the Giants' lineup Tuesday after missing the weekend series against the Nationals, dropping his wRC+ down to 170 as of Friday afternoon, but the 30-year-old left-hander is still among the best hitters in baseball in the early going, powering the Giants offense to a second straight year of surprisingly strong production. And here’s how.

He’s clobbering the ball

His gaudy power numbers are far from just a few lucky swings. Take a peek at the exit velocity leaderboards through Thursday's action. Some familiar names make the top five, but Pederson is right there with them.

Avg. Exit Velocity, 2022

Min 40 PAs

1. Giancarlo Stanton: 97.4 mph
2. Aaron Judge: 96.8 mph
3. Byron Buxton: 96.1 mph
4. Yordan Alvarez: 95.9 mph
5. Joc Pederson: 95.3 mph

He was no slouch at the plate coming into this year, but the ball is flying off Pederson’s bat faster than ever. Last year with the Cubs and Braves, Pederson posted an average exit velocity of 91 mph, which was in the 80th percentile in baseball. Since the Statcast Era began in 2015, Pederson ranks 23rd in average exit velocity (91.4) among those with at least 1,000 plate appearances. Not bad.

But now he’s in an entirely different class of hitters. Going into Friday's action, his hard-hit and barrel rates rank in the 98th and 97th in baseball, respectively. Among those with at least 25 batted ball events, Pederson ranked third in baseball behind Judge and Mike Trout for the highest percentage of plate appearances resulting in a barrel (15.4).

Despite his MVP-esque slash line, Pederson is actually underperforming his expected stats. When he was sidelined, Pederson was tied for first in baseball in expected batting average with Ty France and second behind Mike Trout in expected wOBA and slugging, all of which outpace his actual numbers, indicating that he’s been a tad unlucky when taking his quality of contact into account.

Swinging more, missing less

He’s doing it by getting to pitchers before they get to him. Prior to this season, Pederson swung at just 44.3% of pitches against him. Now, he’s swinging at 54.6 percent of pitches thrown to him, by far a career high. He’s also swinging at 44.6% of first pitches against him, which is 13.8 percentage points higher than his next highest single-season first pitch swing rate. He’s staying in the strike zone while doing so, too. Pederson is swinging at nearly three-quarters of pitches in the zone (73.6%), which is nearly six percentage points higher than his next highest single-season total. While he’s much more aggressive in the zone, he’s only been a tad more aggressive with pitches outside of it compared to last year, posting a 33.6% chase rate versus a 32.4% chase rate in 2021.

The bulk of his damage has been done on the first two pitches of his at-bats. Nine of Pederson’s 18 hits, and four of his six home runs, have come on either an 0-0, 0-1, or 1-0 count. His pitches seen per plate appearance, in turn, have dropped to 3.66, the lowest of his career. He’s yet to get to a 3-0 count and he’s only had one 3-1 count.

Pederson is giving himself more opportunities to do damage, too. That newfound aggressiveness has come with more contact, with Pederson benefiting from avoiding pitcher’s counts. His current whiff rate (18.5%) would be, by far, a career low. Specifically, Pederson is doing a much better job of keeping up with fastballs. He dropped his whiff rate against heaters from 22.1% in 2021 to 10.8% this year, which would be 5.7 percentage points below his second-lowest full-season whiff rate.

He’s being put in the best spots to succeed

Pederson’s breakout is due, in part, to the Giants' steadfast commitment to platoon advantages.

Pederson has historically struggled against lefties, posting a 68 wRC+ over 497 plate appearances prior to this season, far below the MLB average of 100. Despite posting slightly better numbers against lefties (98 wRC+) than against righties (93) in 2021, the Giants brought Pederson in to face right-handers in their platoon-happy outfield.

The lefty has had only three plate appearances (1-for-3) against southpaw pitchers versus 62 against righties so far this season. On April 24, Giants manager Gabe Kapler went so far as to pinch-hit for Pederson against Nationals left-hander Sam Clay after he went 3-for-3 with two home runs, a double and three RBIs.

“We have guys who kind of understand how this roster is constructed,” Kapler said after the game. “We have guys who understand the strategy that we’re rolling out there. Joc has just been on board from the very beginning. It really doesn’t mean that he’s not going to face lefties in big situations. His true talent level is that he’s capable of being a 30-home run, 100-RBI, 20-plus steal, regular player. It just might be that he’s even better with some blows against some of these nastier lefties around the league. Not to say he can’t hit those guys, but he just might be better.”

Pederson is powering a San Francisco offense that's among the best in baseball despite dealing with early-season injuries to Evan Longoria, Lamonte Wade Jr. and Tommy La Stella. The Giants ranked second in runs scored in all of baseball when Pederson hurt his groin. He’s doing damage from the cleanup and leadoff spot, the latter of which he filled in during Mike Yastrzemski’s stint on the COVID-19 injured list.

Pederson’s current 170 wRC+ will come back down to earth in time, but he’s proven so far that he could be a core part of San Francisco’s run-scoring machine. It seems as if the Giants coaching staff and president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi have, once again, resurrected another struggling veteran on the backside of his career. Thanks to Pederson’s emergence, the Giants’ decision to shy away from big-name free-agent bats such as Bryant, Carlos Correa, Seiya Suzuki, Trevor Story and others looks like a savvy one. There's no question about it: Pederson has quietly become one of the better hitters in the Major Leagues this year.