Red Sox Dustin Pedroia Out 7 Months After Knee Surgery

Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia underwent knee surgery on Wednesday. He is expected to miss seven months of baseball activity.

The Boston Red Sox have been graced by the presence of good hitters for a long period of time. David Ortiz comes to mind. Another core player may be done in a couple of years. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia underwent knee surgery on Wednesday and put the start to his 2018 season in jeopardy.

Pedroia missed a lot of time this season as he dealt with a left knee injury. He had arthroscopic surgery last October to fix a torn meniscus but was ready for Opening Day. However, he played just one game between July 28 and Sept. 1.

In the final month of the season, Pedroia hit .242 with one home run, eight RBI and nine runs. He finished the season with a .293 average, seven homers, 62 RBI and 46 runs in 105 games played.

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Pedroia finished as the 40th second baseman on the Player Rater. Based on 94.4 ADP (10th round), fantasy owners were expecting a lot more production out of him, especially since he was healthy after surgery.

ESPN reported that the newly-performed surgery will keep Pedroia off the field for about seven months. That will put a return date at around May. I feel like adding an extra month because I anticipate Pedroia needing an extra month for rehab games.

Looking at the current group of second basemen, the position is fairly deep. We have the usual suspects at the top of the list. Then, there are a lot of up-and-comers with huge upside, like Whit Merrifield, Yoan Moncada, Ian Happ and many others.

Pedroia easily falls outside of my top-25 and possibly even my top 30. He would have been a bit higher if he would have been available on Opening Day. I think he could have gotten close to another 20-home run season. The American League is home to power with six of the top-10 home run ballparks are in the AL.

In AL-only leagues, he is good as a backup for those off days. He’s played in 150+ games just once in the last four seasons. Now that’s all but certain he misses a month of the season, 150 games played is already out of the question.

Pedroia doesn’t run anymore and a second knee surgery isn’t going to help matters. He can still help with batting average when he does play, hitting .296 in last four seasons. There are way better second basemen to draft and not waste a pick on Pedroia in all league formats.