Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia underwent surgery on his left knee yesterday, per a club announcement. Specifically, club orthopedist Dr. Peter Asnis performed a “partial medial meniscectomy and chondroplasty.”
Pedroia was playing with damage in his left meniscus, with an injury suffered about a month ago during a series in Toronto, per Peter Abraham of the Boston Glove (via Twitter). The procedure involves the removal of all or, in this case, part of that portion of the knee, and presumably was performed in hopes of limiting discomfort going forward. The team says that it expects Pedroia to be fully healthy for Spring Training early next year.
The veteran obviously was able to play through the pain down the stretch and into the postseason. He ended with a highly productive .318/.376/.449 batting line with 15 home runs and seven stolen bases. With quality glovework mixed in, more than offsetting the tepid reviews of his baserunning, both Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference credited him with over five wins above replacement for the first time since 2013 — which was also the last time he topped 150 games played.
Looking forward, Boston owes Pedroia a reasonable $71MM over the next five years under the extension he signed in July of 2013. Though he recently turned 33, Pedroia continues to deliver impeccable plate discipline with a high batting average on balls in play and near-league-average pop. And after a slight dip in his defensive metrics in 2015, he’s back to receiving top marks from both UZR and DRS at second base.
He really took to the role of hitting lead off after Mookie was shifted to clean up, hopefully he’ll be up for another good season at 33 years old.
Dustin Pedroia is just incredible. It’s just a given that when he is not playing well it’s always because he is not physically 100 %. If we follow his history when he was injured it is always the same. Nevertheless, he always produces more or less above average even with all his injuries bothering him. He definitely is a role model for the rest of the players on the team.
Pedroia the DESTROYA!
See you in February, my man. I’d have loved for the Sox to go all the way this year, but it wasn’t meant to be.
One of my favorite player in the game and I am a Jays fan.
One of my favorite players in the game too and I’m a Yankees fan.
At 50.7 WAR and plenty of years to go, I wonder if Pedroria is on his way to Cooperstown. *knock on wood*
Yeah, I think he gets in. Unless he collapses he should get to 2500 hits and then the ROY, MVP and rings should put him over the top. JAWS has him as the 19th best second baseman, ahead of a bunch of HOF players but behind sone guys who didn’t make it, plus behind a few active guys like Kinsler, Utley, Cano.
2B has been a difficult position for hall voters – Whitaker and Grich are baffling non-selections, although grich’s career was short. But I think pedroia makes it.
I respect Pedroia and think he’s a very good player. But seems like he gets overrated very often. Maybe it’s just that the media usually skews favorably to Boston for whatever reason. But I do believe he is one of the top second basemen in the American League. But let’s all admit that MVP was a complete joke and one of the worst lines you’ll ever see associated with an MVP in the modern baseball era.
There are twenty nine teams in baseball that want a Dustin Pedroia. To suggest he’s overrated, particularly after the year he had … I can’t agree with the overrated claim. Pedroia’s a ball player.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone call him overrated until just now. True gamer, you are out of your mind.
200 hits, high avg obp ops 20/21 stealing and his team made it to the ALCS. But he didn’t deserve it.
With all that crying he did to the umps he should get his tear ducts operated on as well.
The dude is a baller