This story was excerpted from Kennedi Landry’s Rangers Beat newsletter. MLB.com content producer Jacob Gurvis filled in for this edition. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
Joc Pederson will be the first to tell you that his 2025 season was bad.
The veteran DH slashed .181/.285/.328 with a .613 OPS and nine home runs in 96 games in his first season with Texas. Of the 277 players with at least 300 plate appearances, he ranked dead last in batting average.
Entering the second season of his two-year, $37 million deal with the Rangers, Pederson was determined to flip the script.
But through his first 37 games, it was more of the same: The 34-year-old hit .225 with 25 strikeouts and just five extra-base hits through May 11.
The next day, manager Skip Schumaker penciled Pederson into the leadoff spot, where he’s hit more than any other place in the order over his career. Pederson has over 1,500 career plate appearances as a leadoff hitter – compared to 606 batting third, his second-most frequented spot – but he hasn’t been a primary leadoff hitter since 2021.
While Pederson lacks the base-stealing prowess of some successful leadoff hitters, his calling card throughout his 13-year career has been his ability to get on base.
His best seasons were those where he reached base at a high clip while mixing in a good dose of power. With the exception of the shortened 2020 season, 2025 was the only season of his career where Pederson’s OBP dipped below .310. He peaked at .393 in ‘24 with Arizona.
And since that switch on May 12, Pederson has been back to old ways of getting on base and hitting for power.
Entering Tuesday’s action, Pederson sported a .263/.382/.614 slash line with a .996 OPS, six homers, 11 walks and only 13 strikeouts in 69 plate appearances over that stretch. His .382 OBP since May 12 ranks fifth among all DHs, while his six longballs are tied for most out of the leadoff spot.
So does Pederson think the return to batting leadoff is responsible for his offensive turnaround?
“Not really, no,” he said over the weekend. “I think I just started feeling good. And like I said, I've kind of done it my whole career. I know I didn't hit last year, but it was a blunder.”
Pederson’s success since May 12 elevated his 2026 average to .240 with a .794 OPS, both of which are much more in line with his typical career output. In over 1,400 career games, Pederson is a career .237 hitter with a .798 OPS.
“I just kind of do it. I don't know how I do it,” he said. “If I knew that, then I wouldn't have sucked all last year, or ever.”
However he’s doing it, Pederson’s turnaround is critical for an underperforming Rangers offense.
“Ever since he's gone up to the leadoff spot, it's almost like it's kind of changed who he's been as a hitter for the season,” Schumaker said. “It's been so much fun to watch. He gets on base, that's also been his MO his whole career. He knows the strike zone as good as anybody on our team, and the fact that he's slugging right now is big.”
Schumaker said Pederson’s move to the leadoff spot has given him more at-bats than when he was hitting lower in the order, too. Before the move, Pederson averaged 2.4 at-bats per game. In the 19 games since, it’s been 3 ABs per contest.
“It's tough to get in the rhythm in the five- or six-hole,” Schumaker said. “So him being in the leadoff spot has provided him that extra at-bat, and maybe that's gotten him in more of a rhythm. I'm not sure, but slug is definitely what we need from him, especially, and he feels like he gets on base twice a game now … [He’s] provided us a lot of offense this month, which we've needed desperately.”
Regardless of where Pederson hits in the order, Schumaker was confident the turnaround would come sooner or later.
“I get that there were questions from the carryover from last year, but all the underlying stuff suggested that he was going to break out of this thing, and you trust the player that he's going to,” he said. “He's had a really nice career, so at some point he felt like it was going to click, and we needed it to click, because it's much different when he's slugging.”