Boston Red Sox: Dustin Pedroia undergoes knee surgery
By Sean Penney
The Boston Red Sox announced that second baseman Dustin Pedroia underwent successful arthroscopic surgery on his left knee on Wednesday.
It wouldn’t be an offseason without Dustin Pedroia rehabbing an injury. The Boston Red Sox announced that their veteran second baseman underwent successfully arthroscopic knee surgery yesterday.
A partial medial meniscectomy and chondroplasty was performed by Head Team Orthopedist Dr. Peter Asnis at Massachusetts General Hosptial. Pedroia is expected to recover in time for spring training in 2017.
Was a knee injury partially responsible for a lackluster postseason performance? Pedroia was a mere 2-for-12 (.167) at the top of the order in the ALDS, during which the Red Sox were swept by the Cleveland Indians.
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Pedroia had been dealing with swelling and soreness in his knee for weeks, yet for the most part he continued to play through it. He twisted his knee awkwardly making a throw on a play up the middle during a series in Toronto in mid-September, but it would take over a week before the issue forced him out of the lineup. Pedroia sat out a game in Baltimore on September 20 when his knee flared up and went 0-for-14 at the plate in the three games following his return.
Beginning with a scorching month of August in which he hit .406 to catapult himself into the batting title conversation, Pedroia was one of the hottest hitters in the game prior to that game against the Orioles that his ailing knee forced him to miss. He collected multiple hits in 16 of the 23 games he appeared in leading up to that day, but hit only .222 over his final 10 games of the regular season.
Perhaps his knee did contribute to his production tailing off, but Pedroia would never admit it if that were the case. He’s not one to make excuses. It’s also possible that his bat cooled off due to the ebbs and flows that every hitter goes through during a season. Virtually the entire lineup hit a cold spell in the postseason, so we can’t blame all of the team’s offensive woes on injuries.
Despite a less than stellar ending, Pedroia is coming off a bounce-back campaign in which he hit .318 with 15 home runs. His batting average was the highest it’s been since his MVP season in 2008 and his .825 OPS was his best since 2011. A series of injuries hampered his production in recent seasons, but Pedroia managed to stay healthy for the most part this season.
While his knee may have hindered him late in the season, the injury doesn’t appear to have been serious. Pedroia should be 100 percent and ready to go next spring.
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With David Ortiz drifting off into retirement, Pedroia is now the elder statesman among the lineup regulars and the longest tenured player on the Red Sox. They will need his veteran leadership in the clubhouse to guide a young core of emerging stars as the team attempts to defend their division crown in 2017.