If you were to ask Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson who taught him how to hit, his list would be short. In fact, there would be only one name on it – former minor leaguer and current Dodgers minor league coach Johnny Washington.

If the name Johnny Washington sounds familiar to you, it well should. The Long Beach, California native is the guy who served up every one of Pederson’s home runs during this year’s immensely successful Home Run Derby at Great American Ballpark, and it’s no coincidence that “Wash” (as his players and friends call him) was invited to Cincinnati by Pederson to be his Home Run Derby pitcher.

“He’s taught me a ton about hitting and we just clicked,” said Pederson during an October 2012 interview with Dodgers beat writer Ken Gurnick.

Although many Dodger fans may have never heard of Johnny Washington before this year’s Home Run Derby, they know who he is now. (Video capture courtesy of ESPN.com)

Shortly after being selected by the Dodgers in the 11th round of the 2010 draft, the then 18-year-old son of former Dodger Stu Pederson was assigned to the Dodgers Low Single-A affiliate Great Lakes Loons where he immediately struggled against kids who were two and three years (or more) older than him. As a result, Pederson was demoted back down to the Pioneer Rookie League Ogden Raptors – a move that would eventually alter the course of history for the young outfielder and for the Dodgers organization itself.

“Being sent down was the best thing that happened to me,” Pederson told Gurnick nearly three years ago. “Johnny showed me how to keep my body out of the way of my swing and now it’s repeatable and consistent.”

Pederson readily acknowledges that it was Johnny Washington who taught him how to hit after he was demoted to the Ogden Raptors in 2011. (Photo credit – Noall Knighton)

Even though Washington never made it to The Show, he had spent seven seasons in the minors – six in the Texas Rangers organization who had drafted him in the 23rd round in 2003, and one – his last – with the (then) Dodgers Advanced Single-A Inland Empire 66ers. Although Wash never made it above the High-A level, he had a gift that did not go unnoticed by the Dodgers – he communicated exceptionally well with his younger teammates. In fact, the Dodgers were so impressed with Washington that they made him a coach immediately after he retired from professional baseball in 2009 – at 25 years of age.

In 2011 Washington was assigned to the Ogden Raptors as their hitting coach. It was here that the then 28-year-old Washington met the then 19-year-old Joc Pederson, who had just been demoted from the Loons. The two immediately became close friends and, more importantly, Washington taught Pederson how to hit.

“His approach of going through the middle got me to stay on balls longer and it gives me more power to all parts of the field,” said Pederson. “He took me into the video room and showed me how big leaguers do it. I had a misconception of what I was doing.

“We looked a lot at Robinson Cano and my favorite hitter is Carlos Gonzalez and we looked at him,” Pederson added. “They were doing exactly what Johnny said I should do.”

Joc Pederson isn’t the only minor leaguer Johnny Washington tutored. He also spent considerable time with Dodgers top prospect Corey Seager in his one season as the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes hitting coach in 2013. (Photo credit – Ron Cervenka)

Needless to say, Washington hit pay dirt with Pederson – and vice versa – as the young slugger rocketed up through the Dodgers minor league system breaking countless records along the way. He was named the Dodgers Minor League Player of the Year in 2012 and 2014 and became the first player in 80 years to have 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases in the Pacific Coast League in 2014.

Pederson received a September 1 call-up to the Dodgers in 2014 and the warning flags went up. In his 28 at-bats with the Dodgers he hit only .143 with 11 strikeouts. He did, however, walk nine times and ended his extremely brief MLB debut with an impressive .351 on-base percentage.

But it was during spring training 2015 where the now 23-year-old Palo Alto native absolutely exploded and removed all doubt that he was big-league ready. He played in all but three spring training games and went 22 for 65 (.338) with a team-high six home runs (tied with Kiké Hernandez), five doubles and 13 RBIs. And although he drew four walks and stole three bases, he also struck out 15 times, which tied him with Yasmani Grandal for the most on the team.

As expected, Pederson broke camp on the Dodgers Opening Day roster and set several Dodgers and MLB rookie records during the first two months of the season, including hitting a home run in five consecutive games. He quickly established himself as the leading candidate for the 2015 NL Rookie of the Year title and earned a trip to the 2015 All-Star Game. He was the first Dodgers rookie to start in an All-Star Game since Hideo Nomo in 1995 and the first Dodgers rookie position player to start in franchise history.

…and then the bottom fell out.

After his incredible start to the season, Pederson saw his average drop from a high of .333 to where it stands now at a dismal .223. After hitting 21 home runs through June 30, he has hit only one since. But worst of all, he has struck out a total of 128 times in 355 at-bats (36%) – most in the major leagues – and on Sunday became the first Dodgers rookie since 1914 to strike out three times in three consecutive games.

As you would expect, Dodgers hitting coach Mark McGwire has spent considerable time working with Pederson trying to get him out of his painful strikeout funk. But is McGwire the right guy for the job with Pederson? Although McGwire himself was a huge home run guy (I’ll leave it at that), he was also a huge strikeout guy. In his 6,187 career at-bats, McGwire struck out 1,596 times (26%).

The obvious, blatantly obvious right guy for the job is, of course, Johnny Washington, who is currently in his first season as the assistant hitting coach for the Dodgers Triple-A affiliate Oklahoma City Dodgers. I mean, this is so obvious that even Joc Pederson knows it and it is undoubtedly a big reason why he invited the now 31-year-old Washington to pitch to him in the Home Run Derby.

The solution to Pederson’s struggles could be but a phone call away. (Photo credit – Jon SooHoo)

But why is it that the Dodgers brass doesn’t see this? Why don’t they simply reassign Johnny Washington to the Dodgers for a few weeks to ‘fix’ their obviously broken young superstar? Could it be that they don’t want to hurt McGwire’s feelings? If this is the case, the Dodgers have far more serious problems than just a Joc Pederson slump. After all, we are talking the highest level of professional baseball here.

The other option would be to send Joc Pederson to Johnny Washington which, of course, would mean optioning him back to Triple-A – a move that Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said will not happen – not yet, at least.

“He made a great play in center field [on Sunday]. He’s hitting eighth and he’s fine,” said Mattingly after Sunday’s exciting 5-3 win over the Angels. “We’re going to keep working. We know Joc can play. He’s going to be fine.”

While it’s great that Mattingly has this level of confidence in his young center fielder, perhaps having Johnny Washington spend a little time with Pederson will restore Joc’s confidence in himself.

Do it, Dodgers. Just do it.