The 2026 Atlanta Braves ultimately fell short of their overall goal of winning the World Series.
However, now that it’s the offseason, I’m going to be taking a look at some former Braves players who will be free agents and what the potential fit could look like in Atlanta.
Starting with Braves World Series champion Joc Pederson, who Braves fans should know quite well from the 2021 World Series season.
Pederson, 34, played his 2026 campaign with the Texas Rangers and actually performed very well.
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Taking a Quick Look at Joc Pederson with the Braves
The 2021 season featured the Atlanta Braves making a plethora of meaningful trades at the MLB trade deadline, and one of the most meaningful was Joc Pederson.
Pederson had been playing with the Chicago Cubs before moving to the Atlanta Braves in August.
Over 64 regular-season games played with the Braves in 2021, Pederson hit 7 home runs, 8 doubles, and drove in 22 runs.
However, Pederson’s real heroics with the Braves wouldn’t come until the 2021 MLB playoffs, where he hit a few clutch home runs to give the Braves a much-needed advantage in both the NLDS (against the Brewers), and NLCS (against the Dodgers).
Fast forward to 2026, Pederson concluded his season with the Texas Rangers, where he batted .235 and smashed 26 home runs in 136 games.
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Should the Braves Consider Signing Joc Pederson?
Now that Joc Pederson is officially a free agent, the Braves could consider signing him this offseason, and perhaps they should.
Atlanta doesn’t really have a set DH. Drake Baldwin got a lot of starts at DH for the Braves to preserve his catching ability, but it’s plausible to think that Joc Pederson would be a good fit to split time with Baldwin in that DH spot.
The one factor that will hold Pederson back this offseason in his free agency is the fact that he’s primarily a DH and can’t really play the field anymore.
Atlanta may not want to meet Pederson’s contract demands, but that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be a good fit.
It will be interesting to see what route Pederson decides to go this offseason.
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