Pederson attended Palo Alto High School, graduating in 2010. In his senior year, Pederson batted .466 with a .577 on-base percentage (OBP) and an .852 slugging percentage, with 20 stolen bases in 22 attempts, playing center field and leading off for the school’s baseball team. He also played for the school’s football team, leading it with 30 receptions in his senior year for 650 yards and 9 touchdowns.

In 2011, as the youngest player with the Ogden Raptors of the Pioneer League, he had a .353 batting average/.429 OBP/.568 slugging percentage with 11 homers, leading the league in runs batted in (RBIs) (64), on-base plus slugging (OPS) (.997), and outfield assists (9). He also finished second in stolen bases (24) and on-base percentage, and third in runs (54) and walks (36) while playing 68 games. He was selected as both a Pioneer League and Rookie League All-Star, a Baseball America Rookie All Star, and a Topps Short-Season/Rookie League All Star. Baseball America rated him the Pioneer League # 3 prospect and the Best Hitter for Average in the Dodgers system for the 2011 season.

Pederson was promoted to the Class-A (Advanced) Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League in 2012, at age 20. For the Quakes, he batted .313./.396/.526 with 96 runs (4th in the league), 48 extra base hits, and 26 stolen bases. The Dodgers selected him as their 2012 “Minor League Player of the Year” (the “Branch Rickey Award”), and MILB.com named him a Dodgers organization All Star. Baseball America rated him the California League #3 prospect, the Best Defensive Outfielder, and the player with the best strike zone discipline in the Dodgers system. Following the season, the Dodgers assigned him to the Mesa Solar Sox in the Arizona Fall League, where he was an AFL Rising Star in 2012. He was ranked the Dodgers’ # 4 prospect by Baseball America (and # 3 prospect by MILB.com) after the 2012 season.

In 2013, he received a promotion to the Class AA Chattanooga Lookouts in the Southern League, starting the season as the youngest member of the team and the second-youngest position player in the league. Pederson was selected to play for the United States at the All-Star Futures Game, and was also selected to play in the Southern League All-Star Game. He hit .278 while leading the league in slugging percentage (.497). Pederson also finished second in home runs (22) and runs (81); third in stolen bases (31), on-base percentage (.381), and OPS (.878); and fifth in walks. He had 58 RBIs and 10 outfield assists in 123 games during the season, usually batting in the leadoff spot. Pederson earned postseason All-Star honors, was a Topps Double-A All Star and a Baseball America Minor League All Star, and was Baseball America’s # 7 prospect in the league. He then played winter ball for the Cardenales de Lara in the Venezuelan Winter League, where he had a .439 on-base percentage. He was ranked the Dodgers’ # 1 prospect by Baseball America after the 2013 season.

In February 2014, he was named the 34th-best prospect in baseball by Baseball America. The Dodgers invited him to spring training that year. Pederson was then assigned to the Class AAA Albuquerque Isotopes to begin the 2014 season. He was named minor league Prospect of the Month by MLBPipeline.com in April 2014 after batting .398 (second-best in the league)/.504/.663 with 6 home runs and 9 steals. He was the fifth-youngest position player in the Pacific Coast League, and almost five years younger than the league average. Ben Badler of Baseball America opined, “Pederson is the Dodgers’ No. 1 prospect, No. 34 in baseball, and I still think he’s underrated.”

Pederson was named to the mid-season Pacific Coast League All-Star team after batting .319/.437 (leading the PCL)/.568 (3rdo) with a 1.005 OPS (leading the PCL), 17 home runs (tied for sixth in the minor leagues), 57 walks (tied for first in the PCL), 58 runs scored (2nd in the PCL), and 20 stolen bases (3rd in the PCL), in 74 games. On July 24, he became the second minor leaguer to hit 20 home runs and steal 20 bases in 2014, and the first Isotopes player ever to have a 20/20 season. In doing so, he became the second LA Dodger minor leaguer ever to have two 20/20 minor league seasons, joining Mike Marshall, who did it in 1979 and 1981.

With major league rosters expanding to 40 players for September, Pederson was added to the Dodgers’ 40-man roster and called up to the Majors for the first time on September 1, 2014. Manager Don Mattingly said, “The people in our organization that have seen him the most say he’s the best center fielder in our organization”.

After the Dodgers traded Matt Kemp in December 2014, Dylan Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times wrote that the team planned to start Pederson in center field in the 2015 season. Baseball America named him the #8 prospect in 2015, and MLB.com ranked him the 13th-best prospect in baseball, and the #2 outfield prospect, going into the 2015 season. He was named the Dodgers Opening Day starting center fielder for the 2015 season in April, after having led the team in home runs and RBIs during spring training, beating out Andre Ethier in the competition. At 22 years of age, he was the youngest Dodgers opening day starting center fielder since Willie Crawford (in 1969), and the third-youngest player in the NL.

Pederson was selected to the National League squad in the 2015 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, the first Dodgers rookie to be selected as an All Star since Hideo Nomo in 1995, and he was later chosen to start in left field after Matt Holliday withdrew from the game due to an injury. He became the first Dodgers rookie position player to ever start in an All-Star game. He was also selected to participate in the 2015 Home Run Derby. The #4 seed, Pederson hit the longest homer of the evening at 489 feet, became the first Dodger to make it to the Derby finals, and came in second, losing 15–14 to Todd Frazier in the final round.

In 151 games in 2015, he hit .210/.346/.417 with 26 homers (the second-most by a Dodger rookie in franchise history, behind Mike Piazza’s 35 in 1993) and 67 runs, 54 RBIs, 92 walks (5th in the NL; third-most by a Dodger rookie in franchise history behind Jim Gilliam (100 in 1953) and Billy Grabarkewitz (95 in 1970), 18.5 at-bats-per-home-run (10th in the league), and 4.21 pitches-per-plate-appearance (6th-most in the major leagues). His 26 home runs averaged a distance of 421.7 feet, the longest average distance of any MLB hitter. He tied the lowest RBI total ever by a player with 25 or more homers (Ron Gant also hit 26 home runs with 54 RBIs, in 2000). He also tied Matt Kemp for the Dodgers franchise strikeout record, with 170 (3rd in the National League). At the conclusion of the season, he was selected to Baseball America’s All-Rookie team.

The Dodgers won the NL West title, and Pederson reached the playoffs for the first time as Los Angeles faced the New York Mets in the 2015 NL Division Series (NLDS). He got starts in Games 1 and 5 of the series but was hitless as the Dodgers fell to the Mets in five games.

Despite losing his starting role late in the 2015 season, Pederson began 2016 as the Dodgers’ center fielder once again, though he would serve in a platoon role, mainly playing against right-handers. He hit solo home runs against Jered Weaver and A. J. Achter on May 17 in a 5–1 victory over the Los Angeles Angels. Against the Diamondbacks on June 14, he hit two solo home runs against Archie Bradley in a 7–4 victory. On June 28, Pederson left a game against the Milwaukee Brewers after spraining his right AC joint while making a diving catch against the outfield wall; he was placed on the DL three days later, but he returned on July 19. On July 29, he hit a two-run home run against Daniel Hudson and had four RBIs in a 9–7 victory over the Diamondbacks. He hit solo home runs against Tom Koehler and Brian Ellington on September 10 in a 5–0 victory over the Miami Marlins.

Pederson appeared in 137 games in 2016, batting 246/.352/.495 with 25 home runs, 25 doubles, and 68 RBIs. His 25 home runs averaged a distance of 412.1 feet (the 7th-longest average distance of any MLB hitter), and he saw 4.18 pitches-per-plate-appearance (10th-most in the NL). He became the first Dodger to hit 25 home runs in each of his first two seasons.

Pederson hit a grand slam home run on Opening Day against the San Diego Padres on April 3, 2017. It was the first grand slam by a Dodger hitter on Opening Day since Eric Karros hit one on April 3, 2000, against Montreal. His five Opening Day RBIs were the most by a Dodger since Raúl Mondesí drove in six in 1999 against the Diamondbacks. On May 23, in a 2-1 win over the St. Louis Cardinals, Pederson collided with teammate Yasiel Puig in the outfield, and went on the 7-day concussion disabled list. He would not return until June 13, when González went on the disabled list. Pederson’s batting average fell from .248 on July 28 to .215 on August 18 after he batted .049 in 15 games. On August 19, Pederson was sent to Triple-A after the Dodgers acquired Curtis Granderson from the New York Mets. “That was [my] first time being demoted,” Pederson reflected. “But the [PCL] showed me a lot, the stuff I needed to work on.” Pederson felt like he had made helpful adjustments, but he only batted .182 after getting recalled in September. In 2017, he batted .212/.331/.407 with 11 home runs and 35 RBIs in 273 at bats.

On September 29, Pederson hit his eighth leadoff home run of the season, off of San Francisco Giants starting pitcher Dereck Rodríguez, passing Davey Lopes for the franchise record for leadoff home runs in one season. For the season, in 59 games batting as the leadoff hitter, he hit .309/.356/.818. In his 2018 campaign he played in 148 games, hitting .248/.321/.522 with 25 home runs and 56 RBIs in 395 at bats. His improvement in slugging percentage of .115 over the prior year helped him earn the fifth-highest total in the majors. On defense, Pederson had the third-best fielding percentage among National League left fielders (.992), finishing fifth among them in assists (six).

Pederson married longtime girlfriend Kelsey Williams in January 2018. They live in Studio City, California. In October 2018, during the National League Championship Series between the Dodgers and the Milwaukee Brewers, their daughter Poppy Jett was born.

Pederson agreed to a one-year, $5 million contract with the Dodgers for 2019, avoiding salary arbitration. On May 14, 2019, Pederson hit his 100th career home run against San Diego Padres starting pitcher Chris Paddack. Pederson participated in the Home Run Derby at the 2019 MLB All-Star Game and lost in the semi-finals to Vladimir Guerrero Jr. in a battle that went to a swing off tie-breaker. From September 1 to 4, he became the second player in National League history (after Larry Walker) to have an extra-base hit in six consecutive at bats.

In 2019 he played in 149 games, hitting .249/.339/.538 with 36 home runs and 74 RBIs in 450 at bats, and was 5th in the NL and tied for 5th of all Dodgers ever with a home run every 12.5 at bats. He tied the major league record with six multi-homer games from the leadoff spot (matching Francisco Lindor in 2018).

Through 2019, Pederson was second among baseball players of Jewish descent in career home run frequency (behind Hank Greenberg), 7th in career slugging percentage (behind Kevin Youkilis), and 10th in career home runs (behind Mike Epstein). In November 2019, Pederson was inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame of Northern California. He was inducted into the Southern California Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 2020.

Pederson was awarded $7.5 million for the 2020 season, after losing an arbitration hearing with the Dodgers. Though still used primarily as a corner outfielder, he began getting a few starts at designated hitter as the NL implemented it for the first time in 2020. In the second game of a doubleheader against the Padres on August 5, he hit two home runs and had five RBIs in a 7–6 Dodger triumph.

In the 2020 postseason, he batted .382 (leading the Dodgers)/.432/.559 with a .991 OPS, with two home runs and eight RBIs. After the World Series, he became a free agent.