Los Angeles Dodgers: Why trading Joc Pederson is the right move
By Jason Reed
1. Joc Pederson’s value is higher than it has ever been
When Joc Pederson was one of the best prospects in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system he did have nice trade value if the team were to move on and trade him for an established star. Halfway through his rookie year, Pederson’s trade value would have been enormous due to his hot start and age.
However, neither of those situations were realistic situations to trade Pederson. As we currently stand right now, Pederson has never realistically had higher trade value in his young career.
Prior to the 2018 season, there were fans that wanted to see Pederson sent down to AAA to open the door for Andrew Toles. That ultimately was not the path that the Dodgers took and it paid out as Pederson played perfectly in his slugging lead-off hitter role.
Pederson hit .248, the best average of his career, with an .843 OPS, 25 home runs and 56 RBIs. His strikeout-rate was at an all-time low and was actually the first time in his career that he stuck out in fewer than 20 percent of his plate appearances.
That kind of year is going to give him more value on the market and is going to give the Dodgers a nice return. The two biggest names that I have been circling are Jose Abreu in Chicago and Nicholas Castellanos in Detroit.
Both guys would take prospects as well (Abreu more than Castellanos) but would not take an elite prospect with the addition of Pederson. Both said teams would be flipping one year of Abreu or Castellanos for multiple years of Pederson, a trade-off that is nice for a team that is not ready to contend in 2019 anyway.