BOSTON — It’s rare for Dustin Pedroia to miss any action at all, so when the veteran second baseman was out of the lineup for a third consecutive game Friday, questions began to arise.
Pedroia has been sidelined since Friday with a nagging knee injury. The severity of the ailment still is unknown, but Boston Red Sox manager John Farrell isn’t ruling out a 10-day disabled list stint for the four-time All-Star.
“We’re in the process of gathering a bit more information,” Farrell told reporters. “He’s going to be seen again tomorrow. The improvement that’s being made is slight at this time. I can’t rule out a DL at this point, particularly based on the information we’ll get tomorrow. But we’ll have to wait and see how that unfolds.”
Red Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski echoed Farrell’s sentiments and noted the banged-up knee is something that Pedroia has and will continue to deal with.
“Well, he’s not playing, so any time a guy isn’t playing you’re concerned,” Dombrowski said. “But I think that he will be back relatively soon. When that is, I’m not really sure. The problem for Dustin is he has a bad knee. He’s had it for years. So he’s going to have to deal with that, and he does. He’s worked very hard.”
“I’m not going to speculate, because I’m going to let the doctors tell us that. I’ve never been told that it will be an extended period of time, but maybe 10 days will help him.”
Pedroia has been a workhorse since getting called up to the big leagues in 2006, and Farrell believes the second baseman’s mileage has started to take a toll.
“It’s volume,” Farrell said. “This isn’t a singular event that has triggered something. It’s a culmination of a lot of innings played. It’s not ligament, the volume is just catching up to him and creating the soreness right now.”
Luckily for Boston, it possesses the personnel to weather the storm if Pedroia is to miss time. Newly acquired infielder Eduardo Nunez is more than capable of playing second base, while ultra-utility man Brock Holt could log time at the position as well.
Pedroia is the heart and soul of the Red Sox, but it could serve he and the team well in the long run if he nursed the injury on the DL.
Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images
