Joc Pederson Heads Back to the Outfield

The Joc Pederson first base experiment is over.

According to multiple reporters, in his pregame media session today, Dave Roberts made it clear that Pederson is once again an outfielder, and Cody Bellinger will be playing more first base down the stretch.

Dave Roberts said Joc Pederson won’t play first base anymore — at least for now. He’s strictly an outfielder again. Cody Bellinger will go back to first base.

— Jorge Castillo (@jorgecastillo) August 1, 2019

The best word used to describe the experiment is: odd. Joc never looked comfortable, and it was not totally his fault. The Dodgers asked Joc to learn a new position in the middle of a season, in an attempt to get as many left handed power bats in the lineup versus righties as possible. Normally, a position change is worked on throughout spring training, tested in spring training games, and if it works, utilized throughout the season. In Joc’s case, he was thrown right into the fire.

The Dodgers are notorious for playing guys out of position, or teaching them new positions on the fly. Chris Taylor, Cody Bellinger, Kike Hernández, and Matt Beaty are all natural infielders that the Dodgers moved to the outfield. Thankfully, many of those moves worked. However, moving a guy from the outfield to the infield is a different story. Joc was awful defensively. In 149 innings at first base, Joc made six errors, and even on plays he made, looked incredibly uncomfortable. I would not be surprised if the majority of Dodger fans held their breath any time a pop-up was hit Joc’s way.

Joc is a very solid defensive outfielder. In his career, Joc has made nine errors in the outfield, with four coming in his rookie season of 2015. The move also allows Bellinger to return to first base, where he plays gold glove caliber defense. It was also noted by Roberts that newly acquired left handed reliever Adam Kolarek could see some time at first base, as reportedly he has some experience at the position. Seems like another experiment that may not end well for the Dodgers.

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