Pederson's Historically bad start in Texas

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Joc Pederson’s beginning as a Texas Ranger has been anything but great. Joc has now gone 0 for his last 41 AB’s setting a new Franchise record for consecutive AB’s without a hit. Pederson signed a 2 Year 37,000,000 to be one of the Rangers big bats this year in hopes to push back into title contention. Pederson isn’t even chasing pitches out of the zone,he simply isn’t making hard contact and doesn’t have control through the zone. 

When you combine Jocs ability to be up there in Batted ball percentage in previous years with 26.7% in 2024 and 25% 2023 the trend was on the rise for him, but has reached a staggering halt and plundered down to 11.9% so far in 25%. His bat speed is still one of the better one’s in the league along with a lower chase rate than half the league it’s usually a recipe for success but alas that has all but been the case in 2025 for Joc. 

Pederson needs to control the zone more and set the tone at the plate. He's allowing pitchers to make mistakes too often and get away with highway robbery. He’s not creating his own strikes, he’s just simply not hitting the ones he’s being given while up to the plate 

The Rangers faithful are hoping Pederson can turn it around soon, along with their bottom-three-ranked offense, to help take advantage of how steady their pitching has been to start the season. Joc has always been known for his power and his go big or go home swings, but seemed to have found it in Arizona with his career-best .275 AVG and .901 OPS. The Rangers' DH has remained optimistic, along with Skipper Bruce Bochy. He’s a professional and will handle it, I firmly believe, just as with Marcus Semien in 2022, once he gets that first one, the wall will fall, and it will be a sight to see for Rangers fans. 

He’s a player who’s coming off of 2 career years where he looked like one of the more premium DHs in the league when it came to hitting RHP. It’s hard to deal with a player struggling this way because he’s not taking good ABs in high leverage spots, but you just paid him 37 million over 2 years, so it’s almost a waste to send him down to get ABs. So now the hope is that it clicks and that it clicks soon. The signing is not looking great so far, but thankfully, it’s only April with a lot more ball left to play.