Texas Rangers Free-Agent Bust Hits Rock Bottom With Historic Slump

Joc Pederson's embarrassing slump with the Texas Rangers has reached historic proportions.

Apr 1, 2025; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; Texas Rangers designated hitter Joc Pederson (4) gets hit by a wild pitch in the sixth inning against the Cincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park. / Katie Stratman-Imagn Images

The Texas Rangers finally broke out of their team-wide slump on Tuesday night, pounding the Athletics for eight runs and 10 hits during their 8-5 win in Sacramento.

The eight runs were a season-high for the Rangers, who pummeled Osvaldo Bido for eight runs on eight hits -- including four homers -- over 5.1 innings.

Six Texas players recorded at least one hit, while Wyatt Langford, Josh Smith, Marcus Semien and Jake Burger all went yard.

Unfortunately, one Rangers player who didn't break out of his early-season funk was Joc Pederson, who went hitless once again. Pederson finished the night 0-for-3 with a strikeout, extending his hitless streak to 0-for-41.

That's the longest streak in franchise history.

Pederson has now gone hitless in 12 straight games and hasn't had a hit in three weeks. His last hit came against the Cincinnati Reds on April 2 -- Texas' seventh game of the season.

The veteran slugger has only three walks and 13 strikeouts during his historic slump, so it's not like he's finding other ways to get on base. He has no runs and no RBI, either, so he's been a complete zero in Bruce Bochy's lineup.

It's not like Pederson was hitting well before the slump, either. He started the season 3-for-19, slashing .158/.273/.211 before completely falling apart.

Despite sitting out Sunday's series finale against the Los Angeles Dodgers and getting Monday off as well, Pederson's rut carried over into Tuesday's series opener in Sacramento. He's now batting a paltry .052/.141/.069 (-35 OPS+) with -1.2 WAR in 65 plate appearances this season.

Somehow, the Rangers are still 14-9 and lead the AL West despite having a complete black hole in their batting order. However, they're certainly not getting what they're paying for after signing the two-time All-Star and two-time World Series champ to a two-year, $37 million deal last offseason.

The 33-year-old has been notoriously streaky throughout his 12-year career, but never like this. He's 13 at-bats away from tying Chris Davis' MLB record of 54 consecutive hitless at-bats with the Baltimore Orioles in 2019.

Pederson's been getting unlucky, of course, as his .071 BABIP is unsustainably bad. His 24.6% strikeout rate is right in line with his 23.7% career rate, so some hits will start falling in eventually.

However, a lot of his batted ball data is concerning. According to Statcast, his 90.8 mph average exit velocity is the second-lowest of his career, while his 4.7% barrel rate and 34.9% hard-hit rate are both career-lows.

His expected batting average is only .141 based on the quality of his contact, so it's not like he's getting that unlucky. He hasn't been squaring up the ball and making consistently hard contact.

Perhaps it's just an early-season slump that will improve as the weather warms up and Pederson gets his timing down. He was great with the Arizona Diamondbacks last year (.908 OPS, 151 OPS+), and hitters of his caliber typically don't collapse overnight at his age.

Fortunately for him, the Athletics have one of the worst pitching staffs in baseball, giving him a good chance to break out of his malaise this week. They have the fifth-highest ERA in MLB (4.63) and allow more than one hit per inning, making Pederson a good bet to snap his hitless streak before Texas visits the San Francisco Giants this weekend.

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