The man, the myth, the legend: Dustin Luis Pedroia. Rookie of the Year in 2007. Most Valuable Player in 2008. Four-time All-Star. Four-time Gold Glove recipient. Possesses the sexiest double play toss whether it be from his knees or his feet in all of baseball. The heart and soul of the Boston Red Sox since he entered the league in 2006. The original “Little Guy” (sorry, Isaiah Thomas), standing a mere two inches taller than I. The most hard-working, driven, hungry, ambitious athlete you could ask for. The only downsides? He’s injury-prone and people love to hate him for it.
A few days ago, now second-year Red Sox manager Alex Cora announced that Pedroia would be starting the 2019 season on the Injured List (still do not enjoy calling it that and probably never will) and will remain in Fort Myers while the team travels to Seattle, Oakland and Arizona for 11 days straight to begin the season, the final three days of the trip taking place on the Diamondbacks’ astroturf. While Pedroia has openly stated that he’s ‘100-percent’, the Red Sox are being rightfully cautious with him, seeing how he hasn’t truly experienced the rigors of a full season since 2016, when he played in 154 games with nearly 700 plate appearances, 200 hits and bat .318.
Pedroia continues to rehab from a cartilage restoration surgery he underwent in October 2017, a left knee injury that landed him on the then Disabled List three times in 2017 and kept him out of all but three games in 2018. This has been a nagging injury since about 2015-2016. In 2015 he suffered a hamstring injury that landed him on the DL and then had arthroscopic surgery on his left knee in 2016. Currently, at 35 years old, it is no small task for Pedroia to return back to his normal self and instantly become a regular in a reigning World Series champion lineup. Even he himself said that no one has ever successfully come back from an injury and surgery like this before, let alone at this age. But if anyone can do it, it’s Dustin Pedroia.
The second baseman has been plagued by injuries his whole life, whether it be playing through a broken finger in 2012, having surgery on his thumb to repair a torn UCL in 2013, having surgery again on his thumb and wrist in 2014, or being intentionally spiked by Manny Machado in 2017 on the same already injured knee that had dragged him down by the end of the 2016 season. With that being said, this isn’t his first rodeo. Of course, this current injury has obviously been his biggest rodeo, but it’s not his first. He’s the longest-tenured member of this Red Sox team and is the one true veteran (in the sense of the word) on this roster. He knows how to treat his mind and his body when it comes to returning from an injury and/or surgery. He may be extremely antsy to get back out there, but he’s no dummy. Sitting on the bench for 173 out of 176 total baseball games played by the Red Sox in a World Series-winning season absolutely drove him crazy, and it still does.
Many people are upset that the Red Sox are still sticking with Pedroia, and I’ll get into the reasons why and how I feel about those reasons in a second. But from a monetary standpoint, people need to understand why they’re not giving up on him yet, aside from the blatantly obvious. The team has $40 million invested in the player over the next three years. You’re damn right they’re going to do everything they can in order to get him out there for as many games as possible and produce as much as possible both offensively and defensively without him breaking down physically again. They quite literally can’t afford to let him wither away.
Now, let me get into the real juicy part of this blog. A couple of days ago, I tweeted this about Dustin Pedroia:
I didn’t really expect to get a reaction from this, but I sure as hell did. Of all the people who responded to it, they either wholeheartedly agreed with me or wholeheartedly disagreed with me. There was no in between. I tweeted that because over this past week I’ve seen and heard a handful of people openly wish for him to fail and state that it is in the Red Sox’ best interest to move on from him. Not to mention those who refer to him as a ‘clubhouse cancer’. Obviously, I’m not going to stand for this, because it is laughable and does not make a lick of sense. No genuine Red Sox fan wants Dustin Pedroia out of here as soon as possible. That is a fact.
Responses to the tweets had died down a bit until last night when this real lovely fella responded to it like so:
I don’t wish for him to fail. I just don’t care about him and his attitude. https://t.co/Miz1R12OfL
— The Kids Call Me Mister E. (@EthanMetsinger) March 22, 2019
You don’t care for his…attitude? You mean the heart and soul of this baseball team for the past 12-13 years? The guy who has worked his tail off in order to play meaningful baseball for your favorite team for the past year-and-a-half plus? Arguably the most hard-working player on this team? The most real and most down-to-earth guy on this team? The guy who puts his blood, sweat and tears into everything he does physically, all for this team? The guy who has devoted his life to baseball and, you guessed it, this team? This blew me away and still has me befuddled. I’m sorry, but there’s not shot this dude is a real fan. No one who has followed the Red Sox for the past decade and a half and root for them would even think that blaze of a take.
Another lovely tweet that came in response to this:
I mean, what? Seriously, what? Only senior citizens are allowed to follow and enjoy the Red Sox? Alright, sorry guys. Guess I have to hand in my fan card because this weirdo said so. Dudes like this are the worst and are one of many reasons why women are treated so poorly in the field of sports. I’ve gotten the “bet ya can’t name ten players” card thrown at me more times than I can count in my lifetime now, but this one struck a nerve like never before. I don’t know ANYTHING because I’m a young girl. So that’s good to know. Be more misogynistic. SPOILER: you can’t, especially when you insult an individual’s knowledge assuming they can’t name certain players…from the sixties? Also, this dude not being able to use the correct variation of ‘your’ shows that he has bigger things to worry about than attacking females on the internet for having sports opinions. But that’s none of my business. *sips tea*
Anyways, back to the point. The point is, so many so-called ‘fans’ have given up on an integral piece of the Red Sox both on and off the field before he’s even had a chance to play a meaningful baseball game. The same people who have already moved on from him are the ones who despise his replacements, Brock Holt and Eduardo Nunez, with a burning passion. I’m gonna need these folks to make up their minds, that is if they haven’t lost them at this point. By dismissing the player before he’s gotten the chance to prove you wrong is extremely insulting to people like me. How can you be so numb? Pedroia can absolutely be a legitimate weapon and the middle-end of the lineup once he returns off the Injured List. Having such a talented player like him bat AFTER the likes of Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, JD Martinez, Rafael Devers, Xander Bogaerts…is an extremely positive situation to be in as a baseball team. Why give up on a player who has the ability to further strengthen your colossal lineup when all you need to do is give him a chance? Am I saying he WILL return back to his old self the moment he laces ‘em up? No. All I’m saying is, a player at his level and caliber CAN if you give him a damn second to get back out there. To firmly believe and assume that Dustin Pedroia isn’t as hungry as he was just one year ago and doesn’t have anything left in the tank is essentially pathetic.
The reason why some say that he is a clubhouse cancer dates back to April 2017…yeah, two years ago. But hear me out. You probably haven’t thought about this in a while (because you’re a stable-minded fan), but some continue to be up in arms about how Pedroia handled the situation in Baltimore after he got intentionally spiked by Machado. The next day, I believe, Matt Barnes threw at Machado’s head and the Orioles quickly started chirping Pedroia, for obvious reasons, I suppose. Pedroia responded with, ‘it was them, not me!’, stating that he did not have anything to do with the vile decision to throw at the player’s head. For some reason, fans did and do think that Pedroia was ‘setting his teammates up’ and coming to the conclusion that he ‘isn’t a true leader’ and promptly is a ‘clubhouse cancer’. Yeah, I’m failing to see the logic, too. If anything, he tried to defuse the situation, as a team leader would. According to this section of Red Sox ‘fans’, Pedroia was supposed to stop Barnes from throwing at Machado when he literally had no idea about what the bullpen was plotting that day leading up to the game. Again, I’m failing to see the logic here. I’m not going attempt to see it, either. For my own sake.
I’m sensing as if these keyboard warriors think that I expect Pedroia to play in 150+ games. In no way is that what I or anyone else am expecting. Dave Dombrowski said that the target for Pedroia this season is 120-125, and I feel that’s even excessive. I’d be content with 90-100, something around there. They also believe that I and others expect him to be 100 percent when he returns. Again, no. No one expects that. This situation is all one big ‘if’ surrounding his health, which can easily fluctuate over a 162-game span. I expect him to contribute when and where he can depending on his health. Even if he is not 100 percent, we have no reason to believe that he won’t contribute. There is nothing wrong with saying and believing that he will remain a prominent figure on this roster whether it be with a bat or glove in his hands or in the clubhouse and helping younger players.
All we know right now is that Pedroia is hungry, similar to how he’s been hungry all his life. I don’t know why so many people think that his latest injury has and will be ending that hunger before he’s even been given a chance to eat. He’s been injury-prone throughout the entirety of his major league career and has returned from every injury in his major league career. I suppose I don’t understand why this time is different than before. When it comes to players like him, age is just a number. Mid-30s doesn’t equate to the end like so many choose to believe. A few more days of waiting isn’t going to slow him down. He suffered through sitting on the bench for and watching a whopping 117 wins in 2018. You can bet everything you have that he’s going to give this season his all the moment he gets the green light from the Red Sox. There’s not a doubt in my mind that he’s capable of becoming an X-factor for this team once he returns in/around mid-April.
Comments