Giants sign Joc Pederson to one-year, $6 million deal, per report

The defending NL West champion Giants added some firepower to their lineup on Wednesday evening, signing outfielder Joc Pederson to a one-year deal worth $6 million. MLB.com’s Jon Morosi was first to report news of the deal, while The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal reported the terms.

Pederson is a two-time defending World Series champion, having finished his seven-year Dodgers career with a championship in 2020, then getting traded from the Cubs to the Braves at the deadline last year and playing a key role in Atlanta’s title run. While the soon-to-be 30-year-old isn’t as exciting of an addition as some of the sluggers the Giants were rumored to be pursuing this offseason — Kris Bryant, Nick Castellanos, and Seiya Suzuki, among them — he’s an ideal fit for the platoon-based style San Francisco utilized en route to 107 wins last year, and he has experience with Giants president of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi from his days as the Dodgers’ GM.

Pederson is coming off a .238/.310/.422 slash line with 18 homers — 16 of which were hit against right-handed pitching — in 2021. He was stellar in the Braves’ NLDS win over the Brewers, hitting .429 with three homers and a 1.714 OPS in four games.

While his splits against righties and lefties weren’t exceptionally different last season other than the number of home runs, he’s historically much better against righties, with a career slash line of .237/.341/.490 against them, compared to .208/.285/.325 against lefties. While the Giants may have problems against left-handed pitching if they don’t make any more additions, they figure to be very strong against righties, with a stable of left-handed hitters that includes Brandon Belt, Tommy La Stella, Brandon Crawford, LaMonte Wade Jr., Mike Yastrzemski, and Steven Duggar.

This will be a homecoming for Pederson, who grew up a Giants fan in Palo Alto, California.