Braves legend narrowly misses setting wrong kind of history
Joc Pederson will undoubtedly go down as the most beloved Braves player in franchise history that played in less than 100 games for the club. His presence alone shifted the entire vibe in Atlanta, helping the Braves go on a run to finish the season that ended in Atlanta’s first World Series title since 1995. […] The post Braves legend narrowly misses setting wrong kind of history appeared first on SportsTalkATL.com.
Joc Pederson will undoubtedly go down as the most beloved Braves player in franchise history that played in less than 100 games for the club. His presence alone shifted the entire vibe in Atlanta, helping the Braves go on a run to finish the season that ended in Atlanta’s first World Series title since 1995. The pearls will live on forever, and the Braves probably should have even handed him another contract.
Something has been missing in the clubhouse ever since guys like Freddie Freeman, Dansby Swanson, and Joc Pederson departed in the years following. But beyond that, Pederson has put up three of his best seasons since that 2021 campaign, recording an .850 OPS over 387 games, even making the National League All-Star team in 2022.
However, the start of 2025 has been a brutal one for Joc Pederson. Entering yesterday’s game, he had just three hits in 19 games and was 0-41 in his last 41 at-bats, which was encroaching on some history nobody wants to make. The longest streak ever without recording a hit is 54 at-bats, set by Chris Davis back in 2019. Pederson was just a few days away… until this happened last night.
Joc Pederson ends an 0-41 drought pic.twitter.com/zePSPEfwil
— Talkin’ Baseball (@TalkinBaseball_) April 24, 2025
Cue the Moneyball music, and it’s fitting that it happened in Oakland’s shiny new minor-league stadium against one of the best pitchers in all of baseball.
Baseball is a funny game, and Joc Pederson has always been a streaky hitter, but this is one of those instances where the magnitude of his struggles to begin the year is almost unexplainable. He desperately needed something to go his way, and hopefully, there are many more to come, because an .068 batting average with a -22 OPS+ (122% below league average) isn’t going to warrant a lot of playing time if he doesn’t turn this ship around.
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Photographer: David J. Griffin/Icon Sportswire
The post Braves legend narrowly misses setting wrong kind of history appeared first on SportsTalkATL.com.
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