CINCINNATI -- First-time MLB All-Star. Selected for the 2015 Home Run Derby. Ranked in the top five for power hitters 24 years old and under. Rookie. This is the Dodgers' center fielder, Joc Pederson, today. But five years ago, it was a completely different story. One that had Pederson going nowhere fast.
The video session that saved Joc Pederson’s career
A step backward in 2011 helped Dodgers rookie phenom Joc Pederson find that help that he needed to become the power hitter that he is today.
Rob Carr/Getty Images
Pederson had a commitment to the University of Southern California, but the 19-year-old chose the draft instead. Picked by the Dodgers in the 11th round in the 2010 MLB Draft, Pederson had no power. His father, Stu Pederson, who played a handful of games with the Dodgers in 1985, didn't see Pederson as having real-game potential, even in high school.
“In high school I got overlooked a lot because I was a great BP hitter,” Pederson said. “Even my dad, he says, ‘You’re a 5 o’clock hitter, you’ll only hit in batting practice.’ And I didn’t make the team out of spring training.”
De Jon Watson, then-Dodgers Director of Player Development, wanted Pederson to drive the ball more. Pederson thought his swing was fine. Johnny Washington, a young minor league coach just getting his start with his new job, tried to give Pederson advice on improving his swing to become more of a power hitter. The young hot head wanted none of it.
It was frustrating for Pederson. Even talking again about his struggles now, it shows on his face. The emotion it drew out of him, what he remembered about what he dealt with, and especially what he put himself through because of his own stubbornness.
“In baseball, you get out seven out of 10 times, you’re doing really good, and you still get frustrated a lot,” Pederson said. “So, when you’re getting out nine out of 10 times, hitting .150, you’re mad as -- you’re really mad. And to know that I was causing that, because I thought ‘this’ was right, and it was wrong. So I was doing it right but I was doing it wrong, it just really frustrated me.”
Pederson languished in extended spring training in 2011, and after he was finally assigned to the Low-A Great Lakes Loons, his situation didn’t improve at all. He lasted just three weeks, when he had just eight hits in 60 plate appearances, no extra-base hits to speak of, and one RBI. So, the Dodgers reassigned him to Rookie ball with the Raptors in Ogden, Utah.
The demotion worked, but not simply because of the level. Washington was there. But Pederson and Washington got into it on the very first day. Pederson was adamant that his way was correct. Washington didn’t bother fighting with Pederson. The youngster needed proof.
Washington took Pederson into the video room and broke everything down. Then he asked Pederson to find what worked for successful power hitters, and find the similarities in his own swing. He couldn’t find many, if any.
“It was honestly a career-changing day,” Pederson said. “It made me become so much more open and see what I was doing wrong and why I was only hitting in batting practice, and why I didn’t translate it. I’m still learning a lot about hitting and stuff like that, but it was special.”
Pederson took off. That season he hit .353/.429/.568 with 64 RBI, 20 doubles, and 11 home runs in 68 games. In 2012 he was promoted to Advanced-A where he hit .313/.396/.516 with 26 doubles and 18 homers. He stole 26 bases and walked 51 times.
Pederson earned Pioneer League and Rookie League All-Star honors in 2011, was named the Dodgers' Minor League Player of the Year in 2012, and played with the Israel national baseball team during the qualifying rounds of the 2013 World Baseball Classic. He continued to impress in 2013 and 2014, and when rosters expanded on Sept. 1, 2014 for the last month of regular-season baseball, Pederson was called up to the big leagues.
And that would be where Pederson would stay. He made the Opening Day roster as the starting center fielder, finishing that day 1-for-3 with a double, a walk, and a run scored. Getting there, though, wasn’t easy. And it took a tough luck mentality from Washington to snap Pederson out of it, to change the course of his career. Without that, Pederson might not be in the majors, having just finished his first derby and All-Star game.
“I don’t know, I really don’t know,” Pederson said, his hands running over his forehead. “I’ve never really been a home run hitter, I didn’t hit them in high school. I didn’t hit my first home run until I was a junior in high school. None in little league, so I didn’t really hit for power or drive the ball, even for doubles.”
Washington, though, didn’t just see the possibility for a decent major league hitter sometime in the future. He saw the power hitter that the Dodgers now have in center field, and one that most teams would have to trade several pieces of their farm system and a pretty penny to get him.
Of those players ages 24 and under, Pederson's isolated power -- slugging percentage minus batting average -- is .257, fourth-highest in that category. Only Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, and Kris Bryant are higher.
During the Home Run Derby on Monday, Pederson beat out the Orioles' Manny Machado in the first round, before besting Angels veteran Albert Pujols in the semifinals to face the eventual champion, Todd Frazier of the Cincinnati Reds. Pederson's batting practice pitcher? Johnny Washington, who, Pederson said, always told Pederson he would take part in Home Run Derbies and become the prolific hitter he is today.
“(Washington is) still in shock,” Pederson laughed. “He didn’t think everything would happen as fast as it did. But I still hit with him every offseason. Just cause I’m here doesn’t mean I’m satisfied. I still have a ton of work to do. I need to grow as a hitter and as an overall player. It’s a long process but I’m thankful for everything that he did back in the day, kind of made me into a hitter that I’m still evolving into.”
Pederson may not be hitting for average this season, and he needs to work on striking out less -- he has struck out an NL-high 107 times in 89 games -- but that power is there. Had Washington given up, or if the Dodgers had simply released him when he didn’t produce for power, Pederson’s career might have been short-lived. Instead, he’s now one of the best young hitters in the NL with unlimited potential for more.
★★★
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