Rangers agree to 2-year deal with Pederson (source)

The Texas Rangers and free-agent DH Joc Pederson have agreed to terms on a two-year, $37 million contract with an opt out after 2025, a source told MLB.com's Mark Feinsand on Monday. The team has not confirmed the deal.

Pederson is coming off of a standout year in Arizona where he hit .275/.393/.515 with 23 homers in 449 plate appearances, with the majority of that damage coming against right-handed pitching. The left-handed hitter had just 42 plate appearances against southpaws, though posted a respectable .749 OPS while facing them. However, the damage he can do against right-handed pitching (.923 OPS against in 2024) remains his calling card.

Entering the 2022 season, Pederson was coming off a pair of mediocre campaigns at the plate. In the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, his last with the Dodgers, the slugging outfielder struggled to a .681 OPS. The next year, when he played for the Cubs and Braves, he bounced back somewhat, but he was still below average at the plate with a .732 OPS and 18 homers (though he played an important role in helping Atlanta win the World Series).

Then Pederson signed with the Giants and had an All-Star season in 2022, producing a .274/.353/.521 slash line with 23 homers in 433 plate appearances for San Francisco. He accepted the Giants’ qualifying offer that offseason to stay by the Bay. Although he didn’t replicate his production from ’22, Pederson was still a plus at the plate in ’23, posting a .764 OPS.

Pederson inked a one-year deal with the D-backs for 2024, and he proceeded to turn in the best offensive season of his career by several metrics. In his age-32 campaign, he set career highs in batting average, on-base percentage and OPS (.908). His 12.2% walk rate ranked among the top 6% of qualifying hitters and he was also in the top 10% in xwOBA (.378, top 5%), expected slugging (.480, top 10%) and average exit velocity (92.3 mph, top 7%).

One of the keys to Pederson’s recent success has been a jump in his walk rate -- from 2018-22, he never topped 10%, but since then, his walk rate is 12.8%. While he’s always been a high-strikeout guy (23.6%), his trend of more patience at the plate, along with his ability to prove last season that he can still be very productive, bodes well moving forward.