Cubs trade Joc Pederson to Braves

If you had Joc Pederson in the “Who will the Cubs trade first this deadline season?” pool, you win!

The Cubs have not officially announced this deal, but the Braves, who acquired him, have:

All of Pederson’s numbers are in that tweet; he had a disappointing year on the North Side after being signed to, essentially, replace Kyle Schwarber in left field for the Cubs.

Bryce Ball just turned 23 was the Braves’ 24th-round choice in the 2019 Draft out of Dallas Baptist University — the same school that the Cubs selected reliever Burl Carraway from last year, and the same school attended by Ben Zobrist. Ball hit pretty well in 2019 split between the Braves rookie league affiliate and Low-A: .329/.395/.628 with 17 home runs. But he’s struggled this year at Advanced-A, though with a good OBP: .207/.354/.396 (35-for-169) with six home runs.

For now, I would assume that either Ian Happ or Kris Bryant would take over in left field, and it seems likely that someone like Michael Hermosillo would be recalled to take Pederson’s place on the active (and 40-man) rosters (Ball will likely be assigned either to South Bend or Myrtle Beach).

It’s not clear how much of Pederson’s salary is being sent to the Braves in this deal, but given the return, I’d think Atlanta is picking up all of it.

Ten years from now, people will say, “Joc Pederson played for the Cubs?” His tenure here has been pretty non-memorable.

The trading deadline is two weeks from tomorrow, Friday, July 30.