Months ago, I wrote that the future of Dustin Pedroia may be in doubt on a baseball field. I was told I was overly dramatic, that he’d be fine for the start of the regular season. I said the former rookie of the year and MVP would never be the same and that the Red Sox should start to inquire how to get out from under his prohibitive contract, which has three more years and $40 million left on it.
Like clockwork, it was announced yesterday that Pedroia will start the season on the Injured List. He’ll be staying back for extended Spring Training when the team begins the regular season. At this point, the Sox say there are no set backs; that Pedroia’s simply not ready yet.
The team is hopeful that he’ll be back sometime in April. This seems to be more than simply getting the kinks out, and getting in game shape. My fear is and has been all along, that his surgically repaired knee has not, and will not ever come back to the point where it can withstand the rigors of a full baseball season.
It seems like this may not only be the beginning of the end, but the end of the end for the feisty second baseman. Hopefully that’s not the case, but Pedroia is now 35 years old, and one has to take a hard look and start facing the facts…Dustin Pedroia will never be the same.
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