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Is Dustin Pedroia a Hall of Famer? Ex-Red Sox teammate gives endorsement
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- Is Dustin Pedroia a Hall of Famer? Ex-Red Sox teammate gives endorsement
There's been plenty of discussion about whether Dustin Pedroia belongs in the Hall of Fame. The former Red Sox second baseman has a case with the 2007 American League Rookie of the Year, AL 2008 MVP and four Gold Gloves at second base.
But his career was derailed by a knee injury in 2017 that limited him to just nine games the following two seasons before Pedroia retired in 2021 .
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Regardless of the shortened career, Pedroia's former Red Sox teammate believes he did enough to get into Cooperstown.
"I know everyone has the numbers and all the criteria that you think, and I think there's multiple ways that people think about it," Kevin Youkilis said during an appearance on MLB Network . "And for me it's: If you dominate over a 10-year span and you're at the top, the elite level, to me that's, that's Hall of Fame."
Pedroia spent his 14-year career with the Red Sox. He batted .299 with 140 home runs, 1,805 hits, 725 RBI, a .365 OBP and a .439 slugging percentage. He also has a slew of individual awards and is a three-time World Series champion.
He emerged in 2007 when he took home the AL Rookie of the Year when he batted .317 and had a strong season at second base. Pedroia was gritty and was never scared to put his body on the line in order to make a play.
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"There's no one that went about the game and cared about the game and loved the game more than Dustin Pedroia ," Youkilis said . "His passion and drive was, well, I mean, he was the guy that was on the bench an hour before the game, ready to play. Just loved baseball and epitomized what you want out of a baseball player."
A 2017 slide from Manny Machado was the beginning of the end for Pedroia. Despite his best efforts to get back on the field, including undergoing surgeries , Pedroia's knee was never able to fully heal.
He underwent a partial knee replacement in 2021 and will eventually need a full one
In his first year of eligibility in 2025 , Pedroia received 11.9% of the 75% needed to get into the Hall of Fame.
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