Everything about this signing is confusing to me.
Don’t get me wrong, Joc Pederson is a solid player. He will help the Cubs a lot in the outfielder. The 28 year old has a .230/.336/.470 career slash line with fairly pronounced handedness splits. Honestly, he’s Kyle Schwarber with a better glove.
Which is what makes this whole signing mind boggling. The Cubs already had a player who looks so similar to Pederson that I had to do a double take while creating this table:
Pederson and Schwarber career stats
Player | PA | HR | BB% | K% | Avg | OBP | Slg | wRC+ | WAR |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Player | PA | HR | BB% | K% | Avg | OBP | Slg | wRC+ | WAR |
Joc Pederson | 2517 | 130 | 12.1 | 24.2 | .230 | .336 | .470 | 118 | 13.0 |
Kyle Schwarber | 2108 | 121 | 13.0 | 28.0 | .230 | .336 | .480 | 113 | 9.6 |
They have similar splits problems with Schwarber batting .239 career vs. righties and .197 career vs. lefties and Pederson batting .238 vs. righties and .191 career vs. lefties. I mean, just look at this:
Schwarber vs. lefties: .197/.301/.348 wRC+ 75
Pederson vs. lefties: .191/.266/.310 wRC+ 59
Pederson has a slightly better glove and Schwarber has more power. So what gives? Why would the Cubs part ways with a fan favorite only to sign a functionally identical player a couple months later?
It’s all about the Benjamins as this tweet from David Kaplan suggests:
Sources have confirmed to me that Tom Ricketts has recently increased the Cubs player payroll for 2021. This has allowed Jed Hoyer some flexibility to reshape his roster in a division the Cubs view as winnable. @kapjhood @NBCSChicago @NBCSCubs
— David Kaplan (@thekapman) January 29, 2021
Got it? In December the Cubs couldn’t afford a left-handed home run hitter with bad splits against lefties who was scheduled to make between $7-10 million, but after missing out on Jon Lester who “would have signed for just about anything” they can afford a checks notes left-handed hitter with less power and bad splits against lefties for a one-year $7 million deal.
Everything about this is aggravating.
And don’t get me wrong, Joc Pederson seems like a great guy. I bet we’ll have a blast with him playing at Wrigley Field, but the thing is the Cubs already had the same player who was a 2016 World Series legend and a fan favorite.
Apparently the cost of the Cubs’ soul is somewhere around the $2 million they saved in arbitration.