Will the Texas Rangers Cash in Their Joc Pederson Trade Chip?

The Texas Rangers find themselves in an interesting position. They are still in contention in the lackluster AL West and American League in general. But they are one of the many teams that are making their league and division weak.

There have been several disappointing narratives and storylines with this Rangers team this year. But Joc Pederson has not been one of them.

When the Texas Rangers signed Pederson before the 2025 season, it looked like a great addition. Sure, the price tag of $37 million for two years, with an additional $18.5 million mutual option for 2027, was stout. Especially considering the fact that Pederson was being brought in to mainly DH, specifically against right-handed pitchers.

So as the 2025 season played out and Pederson was both hurt and struggled mightily, it was disappointing. Coming into 2026, one of the keys for the Rangers to be successful was for Pederson to have a turnaround year. And boy has he delivered.

Not only has he improved his overall stats this season, but he has done so at a clip that has made him the best hitter in the Rangers lineup. That is a far cry from where he was just a year ago.

Bounceback Season

Speaking of last year. The 2025 season is one that Joc Pederson would probably like to forget. After signing that big contract and coming to a new team, there are plenty of expectations.

Unfortunately for Pederson, his 2025 campaign was riddled with injury and poor at-bats. In 96 games and 306 plate appearances, he slashed .181/.285/.328, scored 28 runs, had 26 RBI, had 10 doubles, 1 triple, and only nine home runs, giving him a career-low (outside of his cup of coffee in 2014) OPS+ of 77.

The frustration was obvious. He was coming off of his best season in the big leagues in 2024 and yet seemed to not be able to get the job done in 2025.

There were talks among much of the fan base to simply release Pederson before the 2026 season. Essentially cutting the team’s losses and moving on. But with Pederson due $18.5 million, there would be one last chance at redemption.

We will never really know, but I would guess that the leash for Pederson this year was relatively short. And while the first three weeks of the 2026 season weren’t very good for Pederson either, since the middle of April he has been the Rangers’ best offensive weapon.

This year he has played in 100 games and has 335 plate appearances. In that action, Pederson has delivered in a big way. Now hitting leadoff for the club, he poses a threat to opposing pitchers from the outset of every game. His six home runs leading off games are third only behind Shohei Ohtani and James Wood’s 10 apiece.

Pederson is slashing .255/.344/.514, has scored 46 runs, 42 RBI, 11 doubles, two triples, 20 home runs, and a robust 146 OPS+. His production has taken a near 180-degree turn from where it was last season.

Every Other Year Success

Has Pederson become a true every-other-year producer? It sure is starting to look like it.

Over the last five seasons, there has been a constant up-and-down cycle for the powerful lefty. This trend started back in 2022 when Pederson was with the San Francisco Giants.

The last three even-numbered years have been strong for Pederson. And yet for some reason, the odd years have been either a drop-off like in 2023, or a flat-out disaster like 2025 with Texas.

Pederson turned 34 in April. It is reasonable to think that there could start to be some drop-off in production as he continues to age. But what is the cause for the everyother year lights out produciton followed by a down year?

If he knew the answer himself, he would do things differently. Baseball is a hard game and one that can have some interesting numbers attached to it. Sometimes players just get in an every-other-year cycle that, for whatever reason, they can’t explain or pull themselves out of the flipping back and forth.

This year, Pederson does seem to have a better approach at the plate. One of the biggest differences from last year to this year is that Pederson is back to hitting the ball hard to all parts of the field.

In 2025, a quick glance at Baseball Savant and it is easy to see that he was a one-trick pony, hitting all of his home runs to right field and the majority of his hits going to the pull side as well.

Pederson has always been able to hit the ball hard and barrel up most pitchers. It will be interesting to see if his up-and-down trend continues beyond this season or if his production will even out.

Will the Rangers Actually Trade Their Top Hitter?

Just a few days ago, the Rangers were three games over .500 and held a two-game lead in the AL West. Flash forward just four games, and they now find themselves at 55-56 and trailing the red-hot Astros by 1.5 games.

Being 1.5 games out of first in the division and only 0.5 game out of a Wild Card spot on the morning of August 2nd is great. It means that the Rangers are squarely in the middle of the playoff hunt. For a franchise that has been in Texas since 1972 and has only made the postseason nine times, that is a big deal.

But are the Rangers pretenders or contenders? That is a legitimate question. This will be the third year in a row that Texas has been a fringe playoff contender heading into the trade deadline. The past two seasons, the club chose to bolster the roster in hopes of getting to October only to see the team falter down the stretch.

The thought of trading away a team’s best hitter while they are in the middle of the playoff race seems preposterous at first blush. But when you sit back and really think about it, perhaps it’s not all that crazy after all.

Last year, the Rangers had the best pitching in the major leagues along with the best defense, while the offense was lacking. This year, the offense is producing even slightly fewer runs. In 2025, the Rangers averaged 4.22 runs per game, and this season they are only scoring 4.16 runs per game.

The 2025 Rangers’ pitching staff boasted an MLB-best 3.49 ERA. This year, the arms have regressed to a 4.34 ERA, slotting them in the 21st spot.

Defensively, the change year over year has been even more drastic. By moving away from both Marcus Semien and Adolis Garcia, who were stellar in the field, paired with the struggles that Josh Jung has had at third base, this year’s Texas defense has been bad.

This year’s defense has only 7 defensive runs saved (DRS), putting them in the 19th spot in MLB. A positive number, yes, but when you compare it with the team’s 89 DRS last year, that lead all of baseball, it is easy to see that the gloves and arms just aren’t there.

One of the schools of thought is that if the Rangers can just make the postseason, they can roll out both Nathan Eovaldi and Jacob deGrom and have a legit chance in any playoff series. That still might be true, but the big guns at the top of the rotation sure haven’t pitched like dualing aces this year.

Eovaldi has a 4.31 ERA, and deGrom isn’t much better at a 3.96 ERA. Texas shuffled their rotation around this past week in order to have both guys pitch against division rival Houston. Neither pitcher came through. In fact, both struggled in such an alarming way that when Chris Young sits down to make his final decisions on what to do with this club, those two starts have to have some influence.

What Should the Rangers Do?

Are the Rangers mathematically in the playoff race? Absolutely they are.

Should they sell or buy? Somewhere in between is probably the smart answer.

After trading away numerous prospects over the last three seasons, the Rangers could use an influx of fresh talent down on the farm. They have already made a solid trade with the Angels for reliever Chase Silseth and catcher Logan O’Hoppe that only cost them one prospect that wasn’t even in their top 30.

One case for trading Pederson is that it would free up the DH spot for some of the guys that have been battling injuries this season. Texas could have a pretty good rotation of Corey Seager, Wyatt Langford, and Josh Jung (who will be off the IL soon) to use in the role and get them off their feet a bit.

Pederson is a rental, but still should command some sort of return that would be helpful for the Rangers in the long run. It’s not every day that a team that is in contention probably should move their best hitter, but this feels like an exception.

With a -32 run differential, the team has been able to scrape out some wins that they probably shouldn’t have. But that could be giving the Rangers some false hope at this point.

Making Pederson available for a trade ahead of the deadline would be a prudent move. It doesn’t hamstring the team if they do get hot, but it also helps start the process of replenishing the cupboard. No doubt there will be much deliberation behind closed doors in the Rangers front office.

No matter what they decide to do with Pederson, there is no taking away from the fact that he has been a big reason that the Rangers have treaded water this year. His bounce-back season at least has given Rangers’ fans something to cheer about.