Joc Pederson might not remember the full trade package.
But the former Dodgers slugger won’t soon forget the first time he saw Andy Pages’ swing.
A couple of months ago, while watching a Dodgers spring training game, Pederson took immediate notice of Pages, the club’s top outfield prospect. Coming away so impressed, Pederson texted some old friends in the club’s front office.
“I said, ‘That’s different,’” recalled Pederson, now a designated hitter for the Arizona Diamondbacks. “That was the first time I’d ever seen him. … It just looked right.”
What Pederson didn’t realize then, and was only reminded of recently: Pages was once almost traded by the Dodgers, reportedly part of a nixed 2020 deal that would have sent Pederson, Ross Stripling and a then-teenage Pages to the Angels.
“I had no idea,” Pederson said, somewhat stunned, “that kid was in the trade.”
Read more: Andy Pages caps four-hit night with a walk-off single in Dodgers’ win over Braves
Four years later, it’s a trade that never happened for the Dodgers that just keeps on giving.
Pages not only stayed with the organization after the trade fell apart — the result, largely, of impatience from Angels owner Arte Moreno — but is now blossoming in his first MLB season.
Since being called up on April 16, the 23-year-old is batting .333 with three home runs and 11 RBIs. He has a nine-game hitting streak that has raised his on-base-plus-slugging percentage to .921. He produced his best performance yet Friday, punctuating a four-hit game against the Atlanta Braves with an 11th-inning walk-off single.
“It was really special because I haven’t been here for that long and I was able to accomplish that,” Pages said through an interpreter afterward.
“He wasn’t going to let anyone else win that game for us tonight,” manager Dave Roberts added. “We trusted [his] head, trusted the talent, and, obviously, he just rose to the occasion.”
That has been the story of Pages’ journey, starting from when the Dodgers signed the 6-foot-tall Cuban prospect for $300,000 in 2017.
Always known for his natural athleticism and powerful swing, Pages hit 10 home runs in his first year of pro ball at the club’s complex in the Dominican Republic — “which, in those parks, and at that time,” Dodgers director of player…