The Baseball Writers Association of America has released its 2025 Hall of Fame ballot, which includes fourteen new names. Among those names is Boston Red Sox legend Dustin Pedroia, a two-time World Series champion and 2008 AL MVP. But he'll have an uphill battle to make it to Cooperstown, and that fact is a grim reminder of how his illustrious career came to an unceremonious end.
Pedroia's resume leaves little to be desired. A Red Sox second-round draft choice in 2004, he made his debut in 2006, and the following year, he hit .317 with 39 doubles en route to winning AL Rookie of the Year. He followed that up by racking up an MLB-leading 213 hits and posting a .869 OPS, good enough to win AL MVP the following season.
For his career, which he spent entirely in Boston, Pedroia slashed .299/.365/.439, made four All-Star teams, won four Gold Gloves, and was worth 51.9 WAR, according to Baseball Reference. The prototypical contact hitter, he struck out in fewer than 10% of his plate appearances. He remains one of only four men to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in back-to-back seasons, along with Cal Ripken Jr., Ryan Howard and Kris Bryant.
Unfortunately, Pedroia likely won't meet the 75% voting threshold. He was certainly on a Hall of Fame trajectory, but his career was permanently altered by a knee injury suffered in 2017 on a hard slide by the Orioles' Manny Machado. At age 33, his career was effectively over — he would appear in only nine more games after the injury before announcing his retirement in 2021.
Red Sox Nation would love to see Dustin Pedroia in the Hall of Fame, but the length of his career makes it unlikely he'll get there
Reflecting on the injury at his induction into the Red Sox Hall of Fame in May, Pedroia said, "I've never gotten over it, to be honest." And while no Red Sox fans are disappointed with how his career turned out, it's hard not to think that had he played just a few more full seasons, he would be a near lock for the Hall.
His chances certainly aren't zero. After all, there are many players with lower career WAR numbers that have made it, like Lou Brock, Orlando Cepeda and Kirby Puckett, and Pedroia does have an MVP award to his name. But for more modern players, the bar seems to have been raised, and the fact that Pedroia couldn't accumulate value in his mid-30s will hurt him. Johan Santana, who also had his career derailed by injuries, has a nearly identical career WAR to Pedroia with 51.1. He was dropped from the ballot in 2018 after garnering just 2.4% of the vote.
Pedroia's tragic career-ending injury will likely keep him out of Cooperstown, and it's a sad story of what might have been. But he'll always be a Red Sox Hall of Famer and fan favorite. He might even work with the franchise as a coach or a member of the front office someday.