Dustin Pedroia Career Ender

Remembering the could have been red sox legend Dustin Pedroia and his premature stop from greatness

Transcript

00:00Players who ended other players careers. On April 21st, 2017, the Boston Red Sox were taking on the

00:06Baltimore Orioles at Camden Yards. In a 2-0 ballgame with a runner on first and at the bottom of the

00:10eighth, Orioles outfielder Mark Trumbo hits a slow ground ball to shortstop Xander Bogarts.

00:16Bogarts throws the ball to all-star second baseman Dustin Pedroia to get the easy out at second.

00:20However, Manny Machado, the runner at first, starts his side particularly late and spikes

00:25Pedroia in the leg. Pedroia would go down with a knee injury and would have to be helped

00:29off the field. Heading into the 2017 season, Pedroia seemed to be on track to make it to

00:34Cooperstown. The former Rookie of the Year and MVP was sitting at 50 career war, which is roughly

00:40the threshold for the Hall of Fame. Just a few more solid years and Pedroia would probably make the

00:44Hall. But after that slide, Pedroia's career would never be the same. While Pedroia didn't initially

00:50need a DL stint after the Machado incident, the knee pain would linger all season. Pedroia would

00:56hit the DL twice in August due to knee pain and would ultimately have surgery that offseason to

01:01try to fix the injury. His 2017 would go down as one of his worst, with a career-low 760 OPS.

01:07In 2018, the second baseman tried to rehab his knee and came back to Boston for three games,

01:12going one for 11, before being placed on the 60-day DL due to his knee soreness, and would

01:17ultimately miss the entire season. Then, in 2019, Pedroia would once again try to come back from the

01:23knee pain. This time, Pedroia lasted six games at the Major League level, going two for 20, and would

01:28once again wind up back on the DL due to knee pain. Pedroia attempted many comebacks over the next two

01:33seasons, but ultimately came up short. He would never play in the Majors again and announce his

01:37retirement before the 2021 season. While Machado insists that the late slide was not intentional,

01:43the Boston Red Sox seemed to think so, as they would throw at him three times that season.

01:47While that is uncertain, one thing is clear, that that slide ended the career of a potential Hall of Famer.