Just two games after he returned from a nearly two-month layoff with a broken left foot, Dustin Pedroia will be placed on the 15-day disabled list again Friday to help the foot heal some more.
Pedroia was given Thursday off when he felt lingering pain in the foot. He and the team were hopeful a day of rest would be enough to get him back out there, but the risk remained that if Pedroia pushed through the pain he could do some serious damage to the foot.
"They told me that," Pedroia said Friday afternoon at Fenway Park. "I knew that there was a chance that if I came back and played and it didn't do well that I would be out. I knew that, they told me that. It just sucks that it happened. I thought I would play a couple of days and that if I was sore I would have a day or two off, be able to be fine.
"It's not the way it's working out right now."
Pedroia originally broke the foot when he fouled a ball off it in San Francisco on June 25. He played two rehab games in Pawtucket before rejoining the team at the start of its nine-game homestand on Tuesday.
Since May 3, Boston is 22-22 without Pedroia in the lineup and 34-15 with him starting at second base. Overall, Pedroia is batting .288 with 12 home runs and 41 RBIs.
The All-Star remains hopeful that two weeks of rest and treatment will do the trick and avoid any long term issues.
"I got to make sure I'm OK," he said. "If I hurt myself bad it could not mess myself up for next year or it could mess me up for my career. Hopefully I don't do that."
Yamaico Navarro, a 22-year-old infielder, will be brought up from Triple-A Pawtucket to take Pedroia's roster spot. Considered one of the top infield prospects in the system, Navarro has hit .275 with 11 homers and 61 RBIs between Double-A Portland and Pawtucket this year.
