Pedroia Suffers "Significant" Setback With Knee Injury/Rehab

www.mlbtraderumors.com/2020/01/dustin-pedroia-suffers-significant-setback.html


The end is nigh. I have no idea if he'll officially retire or hang on and "keep gettin' them checks" but likely a sad end to an amazing Red Sox career. Love that dude.

I realize this is a bit crass, but if he retires, does that impact the payroll, or is he exempt for some reason?

Manny Freakin' Machado, you complete butthole.

(Is "butthole" inappropriate? If so then insert "anal sphincter" which is anatomical language and not pejorative.)

There’s no reason for him to keep putting himself through this

Just about the last thing I wanted to hear. The ultimate gamer.

Bobby Orr 2

Bobby Orr. multiple knee operations ended his career early.

ADDED after below comments:
Google:

When did Bobby Orr retire?
31
Bobby Orr officially retired at the end of the 1978 season after having had over a dozen knee surgeries. This is what ultimately led to his retirement at just the age of 31.

Thanks. Sorry for my hockey ignorance. I just learned that Orr's knees are what ended his career.

I thought you meant Bobby Doerr 2 as far as being voted in via the Veterans' Committee. Doerr's career ended early too, but with him, it was back issues.

Jeez. I had no idea Orr was that young when he retired. I see those clips of the overtime goal he scored to win the Stanley Cup - I think the Bruins won in 70 and 72, but without looking it up, I'm not sure which one was the one where he basically came out of nowhere, swooped in, and scored the big goal - I'm guessing 72, the year I was born.

I watched the Bruins play in the Stanley Cup against against St. Louis last year and was disappointed when they couldn't win Game 7 at home. I also watched them beat Vancouver in 2011 and lose to Chicago a couple of years later, but I'm just a fair weather fan. I actually watched hockey semi-religiously in the mid-1980s when I was a Hartford Whalers fan.

In an attempt to get this back on track...

I was going to push back on his being only borderline HOF, but I think that's right upon looking deeper. If not for the one MVP season in 2008 it probably wouldn't even be borderline. Definitely first ballot in the Hall of Very Good and I'd be down for retiring his number.

I caught the very tail end of Howe's career. I was more from the mid 80s Ron Francis/Kevin Dineen/Mike Liut era of the Whalers when they were actually a respectable team.

Gordie Howe actually had his restaurant in Glastonbury, CT, a town over from East Hartford, where I grew up.


And yes, getting it back to baseball, I do think that Pedroia has a stronger claim on a HOF possibility than Ian Kinsler. Yeah, it's easy to see the shell of the player Kinsler was in 2018 (and man, was I mad at him for that terrible throw in Game 3 of the World Series), but he did have a strong career.

But Pedroia has an MVP trophy in his case, a Rookie of the Year award, was a vital part of 2 Championship teams (did get 3 rings, though), several .300 seasons and a career average just barely under, and like Kinsler, was gold glove caliber. Pedroia was a better hitter and more consistent.

As I watch Jeff Kent fail to get in, I think Pedroia will fall short, too, unfortunately, but he strikes me as a guy who will definitely get in when the Veteran's committee or whatever the hell they'll call it when Big Papi and Pedro Martinez are on it someday - decide to vote him in.

No professional athlete has ever come back from microfracture surgery to play significant games or contribute in any meaningful way. Pedroia has spent his whole life defying all kinds of odds, and I am personally a huge fan, but my sense is this is the end.

I don't think he will retire, and why should he? Basically, would any of us turn down money in a work-related contract if a work-related injury kept us from completing that contract?

Only creative alternative I've toyed with is make him the manager and move that money off the 40-Man/Lux Tax and give it to him as a guaranteed manager's contract. I think he could handle the job and would do it as well as any other first-time manager, but $22M would set a crazy precedent, so I believe the Sox would be reticent to do that (and many other team owners would push back hard but screw them anyway), unless the Sox could convince him with, say, a two year managerial contract with an option for a third for $3 a year, with the rest guaranteed as structured payments over the next several years. Hey, they gotta pay him the money anyway, so it's almost like getting him for free AND it comes off the luxury tax books.

Not a bad solution that helps both him and the team with a couple urgent needs, but, like I said it's "creative" and as such, highly unlikely.