It’s Time To Move On From Dustin Pedroia
It is very doubtful that Dustin Pedroia will return to baseball this season. After a very brief three game season this year for Pedroia coming off of knee surgery, he went back on the DL with inflamation in that same knee.
Pedroia will be headed back to Arizona to continue rehab on that knee because he felt as if it was too much of a burden on Red Sox medical staff. He spoke with MassLive about his injury yesterday.
“You can’t risk it,” Pedroia said. “If I come back too early and the graf fails, then that’s it. When I came back, everyone thought, since I’m a smaller guy and don’t bear a lot of weight, that I could play while I was healing. Obviously, I couldn’t. That’s normal. It’s not like the surgery failed or anything like that. It just takes time for it to heal all the way and then build it up from there. It’s not gonna be an issue anymore [after that].”
Dustin Pedroia Is Not The Same Player
Pedroia had a good 2016 season. He batted .318, had 74 RBI, and 15 HR. Better than his rookie of the year stats and just below his MVP season stats. He’s a 34 year old player coming off major knee surgery and still has time left on his contract.
Obviously you’re not going to get much, if anything, in return. However; if you let him recover and show that he’s still a viable option than the Red Sox should move him. Yes, Dustin Pedroia is a fan favorite and has been here for quite some time. But eventually, we must move on.
The Red Sox have the best record in baseball and are currently on a nine game winning streak. It’s safe to say that the Red Sox don’t REALLY need Pedroia right now. What they need is a bullpen arm and one more viable starting pitcher for the post season.
Trade Talks
This isn’t the first time Dustin Pedroia has been involved in trade rumors. For the past few seasons now they’ve been getting a little bit louder. With the team on pace to win what seems to be 200 games this year, should be all the evidence you need that Pedroia isn’t that big of a deal.
If offense or defense was a major concern of this team (which it’s not) than there is a case to keep Pedroia. But who would want to trade for Pedroia? He has four years left on his deal which he’ll be 38 at the end of it. So he’ll probably be done after this contract.
A great place for him would be a competitive team (naturally) like Arizona, LA Dodgers, Seattle, or Washington. Warm weather environments for the exception of Washington. Pedroia is from Arizona so I don’t think he’d be opposed to going back.
–Brian Berard (@RockyBerard)
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