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New Diamondback Joc Pederson played football with Davante Adams, was slapped by Tommy Pham

Jeremy Cluff, Arizona Republic
·4 min read
21

The Arizona Diamondbacks have agreed to a deal with slugger Joc Pederson, adding a potent bat to their lineup for the 2024 season.

But Pederson is much more than a slugger.

Get to know the new DBacks player with these five tidbits about Pederson, 31, who has played in MLB for 10 years.

The Diamondbacks are Pederson's fifth team. He started his career with the Los Angeles Dodgers for seven years, before spending time with the Chicago Cubs, Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants.

Pederson is a career .237 hitter, with 186 home runs and 485 RBIs. He is a two-time MLB All-Star.

More: Arizona Diamondbacks agree to deal with slugger Joc Pederson, source says

Joc Pederson played football with Davante Adams

It's true. Pederson and Adams were football teammates in high school at Palo Alto (California) High School.

Adams said of Pederson, who also played wide receiver, in a 2022 ESPN story: "He was a hell of a player. He showed me a lot. I wouldn't look at him, like, the vet because he was always, just to paint the picture, he was kind of like a goofball in high school a little bit. But he was ... a stud in all three sports [football, basketball and baseball].

Joc Pederson was slapped by former DBacks player Tommy Pham

That can't be true, right? It is.

In 2022, Pham, then of the Cincinnati Reds, slapped Pederson when he was with the Giants over a fantasy football dispute.

Pham ended up being suspended and fined $5,000.

“You know what," Pham told USA TODAY Sports of the incident, “I’ve got no regrets. None at all. Joc deserved to be slapped."

Bob Nightengale of USA TODAY Sports captured the history of the incident in a column in June of 2022.

Pham is interestingly a free agent after joining the DBacks when the team traded for him at the MLB trade deadline last season, with Pederson essentially taking his spot on the roster.

More: Arizona Diamondbacks single-game tickets to go on sale in February

Joc Pederson has two World Series rings

Pederson is a two-time World Series champion, helping the Dodgers win the championship in 2020 and the Braves win it in 2021.

In 2020, he went 4-for-10 in the World Series in six games, with a home run and three RBIs, helping Los Angeles beat the Tampa Bay Rays in six games.

Pederson hit .382 during that postseason run.

Teammate Alex Wood said of his postseason performance: "They call it 'Joctober' for a reason."

In 2021, Pederson helped the Braves get to the World Series with two pinch-hit home runs in the NLDS. He hurt his former team in the NLCS, when he hit a 2-home run to help the Braves beat the Dodgers. The Braves beat the Houston Astros in six games in the World Series.

Pederson has played in 16 playoff series in his career, and has hit .256 overall in them, with 12 home runs and 29 RBIs in 79 total games.

Former Atlanta Braves outfielder Joc Pederson is presented his World Series ring and shows it off proudly to Braves fans before the San Francisco Giants play the Braves in a baseball game on Monday, June 20, 2022, in Atlanta. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)
Former Atlanta Braves outfielder Joc Pederson is presented his World Series ring and shows it off proudly to Braves fans before the San Francisco Giants play the Braves in a baseball game on Monday, June 20, 2022, in Atlanta. (Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP)

Joc Pederson can hit right handers

Pederson has had a lot of success against right handers in his career and he could be a real threat against them this season.

He owns a career .834 OPS against them and could end up facing them a lot this season as the rotations of Arizona's division rivals are currently made up primarily of right handers.

Pederson hasn't been nearly as successful against lefties, posting a .622 OPS.

More: Arizona Diamondbacks working to avoid being one-hit playoff wonders

Joc Pederson could be set for a bounce-back year

Pederson hit .235 last season, with 15 home runs and 51 RBIs in his second season with the Giants.

He hit .274 with 23 home runs and 70 RBIs in San Francisco in 2022, when he was an MLB All-Star for the second time.

The Arizona Republic's Nick Piecoro explained, however, that last season Pederson's "batted-ball data suggested a degree of poor luck with his results."

Could those results change at Chase Field with the Diamondbacks?

Reach Jeremy Cluff at jeremy.cluff@arizonarepublic.com. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter @Jeremy_Cluff.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: New Arizona Diamondbacks DH/OF Joc Pederson: Much more than a slugger