The Cubs have placed outfielder Joc Pederson on the 10-day injured list, retroactive to April 21, with left wrist tendinitis, Meghan Montemurro of the Chicago Tribune was among those to report. They recalled infielder Nico Hoerner in a corresponding move.
The IL placement continues a forgettable start to the season for Pederson, a former Dodger whom the Cubs signed to a one-year, $7MM guarantee in free agency. The left-handed Pederson has typically offered above-average offense, especially against righties, though his numbers have plummeted dating back to the start of last season.
The Cubs were betting on a bounce-back year when they added Pederson, but their plan hasn’t worked out yet. Pederson has batted a career-worst .137/.262/.235 (47 wRC+) with one home run and a microscopic .098 ISO through 61 plate appearances. Nevertheless, the Cubs have stuck with Pederson as their regular left fielder, having started him in 15 of 17 games. Ian Happ is the only other Cub who has started at the position this year.
The 23-year-old Hoerner was Baseball America’s 40th-ranked prospect as recently as 2020, but he hasn’t been able to establish himself in the majors thus far. He combined for 208 PA during the previous two seasons and batted .247/.309/.333 (73 wRC+) with three HRs.
JOC is overrated his glove has been in decline like his bat
you have to be rated first to be overrated.
The guy is a former All Star and a Baseball America Top 10 prospect. He was rated.
He was ranked #8 pre-2015 from Baseball America, which was too high compared to MLB, which had him ranked #13, and the much more accurate (with sabermetrics and algorithms) Baseball Prospectus, which had him ranked only at #18.
Baseball prospectus sabermetrics and algorithms had blake swihart and addison russell listed ahead of pederson.
LOL
Career .228 is considered “above average”???
statman – his patience and power have helped to offset his low batting average. From 2015 through 2019, his OPS+ marks were:
113
126
96
125
127
That fits the description of “typically offered above-average offense.” And there were quailifiers in the article stating, “especially against righties, though his numbers have plummeted dating back to the start of last season.”
He had a poor 84 OPS+ last season and currently is at 41 this year in 61 PA. It’s possible he’s done as a productive player at the ripe old age of 29, but I think it will take more time to make that call. And if that’s correct, it wouldn’t be the first time it happened to a ballplayer.
Too early. He’s shown that he can be productive especially against right handed pitchers. He’s never going to hit for average but with enough at bats he should be above 0.850 OPS against righties. Not sure why the Cubs intend on playing him against lefties. It’s as bad a decision as the Dodgers trying to plug him at 1B for about a week.
Will Hoerner get regular playing time now?
Probably not yet.
Hoerner should be the everyday starting second baseman and lead off hitter in my opinion.
Couldn’t agree more.
Absolutely he is up to stay. He can replace Baez next year.
This probably was his least favorite birthday.
Joc left his hot bat in Arizona. Maybe he can retrieve it while on the IL.
Poor Joc! So many of his fans were predicting 40 home runs after his hot Spring Training! At this rate, he’ll be Josh Reddick (at best) in 2022, settling for a minor league contract, if not taking his bat overseas.
He’ll have made ~$21.4 million after 2021, and he has a high school diploma for his education. After agent fees, taxes, and what’s left over, will that be enough to last him if this is it?
He has a show fetish too.
Come again?
Lol 21 million and a high school diploma, what more would you need to start a business? Lol an 80,000 dollar education?
So a bad COVID shortened season, one bad month after changing teams and an unconventional offseason, and 29 yr old Joc is toast? This seems like a knee jerk reaction.
With Creepy Sleepy Gropin’ Joe Xiden at the helm, there will probably be nothing left over, after government extortion. Sorry, I meant “taxes.”
Proof again not to take Spring T numbers serious. Looked like the babe
Get well soon Joc. If the Cubs don’t want him, I’d take back.
Not weird at all.
I watched Joc for 7 seasons in LA and except for the first half of his rookie season and a few post season series, he’s appeared clueless at the plate. He’s come to camp out of shape and never seemed to grasp that he needed to adjust his approach at the plate to remain relevant. I figured this would happen in Chicago. LA limited his use to situations where he might succeed. He’s not an everyday player and if he doesn’t play winter ball this offseason and figure out how to hit lefties, he’ll be done
I liked Joc as a Dodger, but when there were hints that Bellinger might be platooned, Cody spent the next winter working hard on how to hit lefties. The results were stellar numbers against LHP and a league MVP award. If you want an everyday job in MLB, you need to put in the work.
Joc’s defense has also been in serious decline. It’s hard to believe he was once a center fielder. In 2018, the Dodgers’ worst two defensive OF were Puig and Kemp. Both were shipped out. Joc’s situation was similar. Btw, in my view, when the defense starts to slide, it’s a possible indicator that other skills might soon erode as well. Joc is streaky and still might contribute something worthwhile to the Cubs. Just not as an everyday player.
Fair points. Definitely agree on the defense. It has slipped. He has gained weight and looks pretty slow out there. He was much slimmer earlier in his career. Stole bases and covered good ground on defense. Heck, he was a legit wide receiver when he played HS football.
I never understood why the Dodgers had Pederson leading off and Bellinger lower in the line up, especially in 2018 pre-Bellinger breakout year. Pederson had a higher slugging percentage and Bellinger had a higher OBP and much better speed. When Pederson got on he was never a threat to steal. Those Joc solo shots could have been more productive closer to the heart of the order and Bellinger could have done more damage at the top of the order in the base paths.
Looks like Arte Moreno made a rare correct move by calling off the trade for Joc.
His playoff bat was needed for that ring
They don’t call him JOctober Pederson without a reason. He guesses a lot but when he’s patient and swings at pitches in the zone he can produce elite stats against righties.
The Dodgers won the World Series. How did Smarty Arte’s team do?
The Dodgers were the best team in baseball last year, and probably are again this year. That being said, you know a ring after a 60 game season doesn’t mean the same thing as a ring after a 162 game season. You are lying to yourself if you say otherwise.
A ring’s a ring, and a title’s a title. It’s not like they lucked into the playoffs, and they had to win more postseason series than any other team before them.
It’s in the record book just like all the other WS titles.
*
I appreciate everything Joc did for the Dodgers, but replacing him and Hernandez with Lux and McKinstry is a big win for my team. No one had a more underrated winter than the Dodgers. They won the World Series and then went out and got better. Improving isn’t just about signing free agents and making trades. It’s also about knowing when it’s time to let players go. Bauer was the biggie, but so was “adding” Price and Nelson along with Knebel. Meanwhile, the rest of the roster is still relatively young and getting better. Off-season grade: A. There really wasn’t much that needed to be done. Just let players play.
So…the Cubs bemoaned the fact that they couldn’t beat lefties last year and so improving that was supposed to be one of their offseason goals. So what does Jivin’ Jed do? He goes out and signs Joc and promises that he will get an opportunity to play against lefties. To put it mildly, the dude simply cannot hit southpaws. (Of course, right now he can’t hit ANYONE but that’s a story for another post).
I don’t get it. Theo had to believe in Jed or he wouldn’t have always been his guy. But…you don’t even need analytics to know this and he signed him anyway. He gets what he deserves I suppose.
Yeah and they kept their best 2b down for service time manipulation & to save a few mil. Hope they miss playoffs by couple games because Nico is clearly better then Bote, Sogard, Duffy and Vargas (all of whom got first shots to perform and failed miserably).
@momma—-kind of odd you would post about service time within an hour of the Cubs proving he wasn’t sent down for service time——I believe the magic number was somewhere around 36 days for Hoerner to be down. And what about 73 wRC+ screams clearly better than anyone? If not for Javy breaking his thumb and Russell getting hit in the head of September of 2019 we might still be waiting for Nico to make his major league debut. He, over the 200 at bats he has had, has been clearly overmatched at this level and probably needs even more seasoning.
Yeah that’s my bad for some reason I did think the season was already a month or more in, sucks getting old Lol. I would not be shocked if they demote him one more time for the remaining two weeks but that would look awfully suspicious. Nico looked really good physically and with the bat in ST. Obviously he’s very solid with the glove already too.
Joc looked good in ST too, so there’s that.
I thought they brought Hoerner up way too soon, even with the Baez injury..all the way from AA..
Uuhhh… Have you read the article you’re commenting on? Hoerner is getting called up… How is that keeping him down for service time manipulation?
Funny you say this… They’ve faced back to back lefties and beat them, including scoring 16 runs yesterday…
Is Joc still pudgy this year? I haven’t seen any Cubs games yet but it looked like put on 20 dad pounds with the Dodgers last year.
Goodbye Joc…his plate accumen is really deficient right now. Ugh. I’m glad that Nico is back.
Phantom DL stint for a guy that looks completely lost at the plate.
Good bye Joc , not playing that great, just like last year , and swinging got the fences every time up kinda fits into the Cub mold. This is a fact and the clock will be ticking until the waste management truck pulls up in a few months. This is not fun to watch as this team is going to need a huge over haul, along with cutting payroll. I wonder how long the Ricketts family will stay in this