A broken man
Pedroia hobbles into uncertain offseason
In the end, there was only Dustin Pedroia, or whatever’s left of him, fouling off a two-strike, 99-mph fastball, then taking a slider off the plate, fouling off another, and finally slapping a routine ground ball to second base.
RED SOX BEAT Chad Jennings
He stumbled a bit coming out of the box, jogged halfway down the line, and slowed to a walk well before reaching first base. His head was down.
That was the moment of resignation, and we now have to wonder, how much defiance does Pedroia have left?
The final out of yesterday’s 5-4 Red Sox elimination sent their iconic second baseman, forever revered for his don’t-tell-me-the-odds determination, toward an uncertain future.
His left knee is a mess, it has been all season, and his first order of offseason business will be a trip to a doctor’s office. He said he’s literally having it checked out today, wasting no time gathering information and assessing the odds.
Pedroia spent the past three months seeing just how difficult it can be to stay on the field in his current state. Now, he must consider the possibility of surgery, which will surely require more than a brief rehab stint.
“I’m going to go talk to the doctors about that,” Pedroia said. “Obviously, we had to try and find a way to do what we did so I could be out there (this season), but if you were to get it fixed, the recovery is a long time. So, I have a lot of things to weigh in with the doctors and figure it out.”
At 34 years old, Pedroia still has four years left on the contract extension he signed in 2013. This offseason, he had relatively minor surgery to clean up the meniscus in his left knee, but the issue kept popping up.
Manny Machado slid into his left leg in April, and Pedroia missed three games.
The Red Sox played four games in three days right after the All-Star break, and Pedroia was on the disabled list two weeks later. Workload had been too heavy, manager John Farrell said.
Pedroia returned for one game in early August and wen right back on the DL through the first of September. The knee still wasn’t right.
This season, his number of career starts at designated hitter tripled.
“He’s a 100 percent of what he is right now,” Farrell said between Games 2 and 3 of this division series.
It was a telling description. Hanley Ramirez had his ongoing shoulder problems, Mookie Betts was dealing with a sore wrist at the end, and Xander Bogaerts had a hand injury that lingered in the middle of the season. But all three had at least 90 more at-bats than Pedroia. Eduardo Nunez was the regular second baseman through much of the second half.
When he did play, Pedroia had three hits in his final 40 plate appearances of the regular season, then he went 2-for-16 in the American League Division Series. The year sure seemed to be even more of a grind than usual.
“Yeah, it was, but it was for a lot of guys,” Pedroia said. “You know, we dealt with a lot the whole year, injury-wise, but that’s the cards you’re dealt. You still have to find a way to play well.”
Pedroia did hit .293 this season, and his .369 on-base percentage was the best on the team. His power numbers were down, but he remained a productive hitter and reliable fielder when he was healthy enough to be on the field.
His .125 this postseason continued a recent trend of poor Octobers for Pedroia. Beginning with the 2009 ALDS, he’s played in 26 playoff games and hit just .204.
But that’s not the Pedroia anyone thinks of when he steps into the box. That’s not the version Farrell had in mind when he set yesterday’s lineup with Pedroia moved into the leadoff spot, where he’d hit just twice since early May.
Pedroia went 0-for-5 with a strikeout.
In sports, there’s a fine line between excuse and explanation. Pedroia has little time for the former, and even yesterday shrugged off the injury’s impact on his season. Part of the game, you know. But as an explanation for his current status, even Pedroia could not deny that his knee has created a murky future.
“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I’ve got to go get checked out (today) and go from there.”
Whatever Pedroia learns and whatever he decides could determine the Red Sox course of action this winter, including the possibility of bringing back Nunez or bringing in someone else, to serve as an insurance policy at second base.
The offseason came too quickly, and it starts with a visit to the doctor.