Dustin Pedroia can’t catch a break these days, returns to DL
By Cody Rivera
Dustin Pedroia’s string of bad luck continues as he returns to the disabled list.
For nearly two months of the regular season, the Boston Red Sox and their fans were heavily anticipating the return of longtime second baseman Dustin Pedroia, and he finally re-joined the lineup last week against the Braves.
But his long-awaited return was very short-lived. Pedroia only appeared in three games, and has since been put back on the 10-day disabled list due to inflammation in his surgically-repaired knee.
After spending a decade as one of the faces of the Red Sox, winning an MVP award in 2008 and making four All-Star appearances, Pedroia has seemed to be somewhat on the decline over the last year or two. To put it simply, Pedroia, who will be turning 35 in August, hasn’t been able to catch a break with injuries.
Following a successful 2016 season in which he played in 154 games with a batting average of .318, Pedroia has since been on and off the disabled list like it’s a revolving door. The Red Sox were swept by the Cleveland Indians in the 2016 American League Division Series, and Pedroia immediately underwent surgery on his left knee.
He was back for the 2017 season, but found himself on the DL three times throughout the course of the year. The first time, it was due to a left wrist sprain early in the year, and then in the month of August, he twice went back on the DL as a result of soreness in the same knee that he had surgery on less than a year before.
Pedroia only appeared in 105 games for the Red Sox in 2017, and his 2018 season isn’t going much better, as he’s only appeared in three games and only managed one hit in 11 at-bats.
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He was one of the premier second baseman in Major League Baseball over the first decade of his career, but as Pedroia has gotten older, his body seems to be breaking down a lot easier. Unless he can make a full recovery and avoid another trip back to the disabled list in the near future, we might be witnessing the decline of Dustin Pedroia’s career.