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Braves Free Agent Targets: Joc Pederson Makes Too Much Sense

By Jake Mastroianni

ARLINGTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 25: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Tampa Bay Rays during the second inning in Game Five of the 2020 MLB World Series at Globe Life Field on October 25, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images)
ARLINGTON, TEXAS - OCTOBER 25: Joc Pederson #31 of the Los Angeles Dodgers rounds the bases after hitting a solo home run against the Tampa Bay Rays during the second inning in Game Five of the 2020 MLB World Series at Globe Life Field on October 25, 2020 in Arlington, Texas. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) /
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As the Atlanta Braves look for a left-handed power bat this offseason, there is one name that makes a ton of sense for them to sign.

The Atlanta Braves will most certainly be looking to acquire a left-handed bat this offseason, and preferably one that has some power.

They struggled to find much help from the left side of the plate during the 2020 season beyond Freddie Freeman.

They tried out Matt Adams and Scott Schebler (kind of, he only got one big league at-bat), but ultimately settled for Nick Markakis who was pretty terrible for the last two months.

At this point, I can’t say that I would be shocked if the Braves bring back Markakis simply because of the love affair the organization has for him. But at the same time, I would be shocked if he’s back.

There are several interesting free agent left-handed bats that will be available this winter. That list includes: Michael Brantley, Josh Reddick, Matt Joyce, Derek Dietrich, Didi Gregorius, Alex Gordon, and Tommy La Stella.

Brantley is my obvious first choice and I’ll get into him more in a future post. But if he becomes too expensive for the Braves, then my fallback option is Joc Pederson.

It feels like we’ve been writing about the Braves getting Joc Pederson for a while, and maybe now it finally happens.

This season certainly wasn’t his best as he hit just .190, but hopefully that will help drive the price down.

The two seasons prior he hit around .250 with a combined 61 home runs.

Los Angeles really only used him as a platoon player as he crushes right-handed pitching slashing .238/.349/.501 against them in his career with an .849 OPS.

He would be the perfect platoon partner with Adam Duvall in the outfield and a very valuable bat off the bench against righties.

Pederson is a solid defender in right field and can even play first base if Freeman needs a break or misses time.

We also still don’t know if the DH will be back in the NL this year or not, but he could be a good candidate to fill that spot.

dark. Next. Braves Decline Option on O'Day

I think this just makes too much sense for the Braves not to happen, but we’ll see what happens this winter and how things play out.

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