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Dustin Pedroia told WEEI today that he expects to have thumb surgery in "a couple of weeks." This to repair the torn thumb ligament he played with for the entire 2013 season.
Not only did Pedroia play through his injury, Boston's star second baseman actually managed to play in 160 regular season games before starting all 16 games in the postseason en route to his second World Series win. It's like the thumb that's to blame for some of Pedroia's diminished numbers--he managed just nine homers on the year as his power numbers took a sharp downturn, coming up as the lowest of his career save for 31 games in 2006.
Despite that, Pedroia still managed to be one of Boston's most valuable players, coming in at 5.4 fWAR and a stunning 6.5 rWAR thanks in large part to his Gold Glove defense and ever-impressive on-base ability which did not seem to suffer overly much from his lessened power.
Of course, Pedroia is no stranger to playing through a thumb injury at the expense of his statistics. In 2012 he started 26 games with an injured thumb, hitting just .210/.282/.305 before finally hitting the disabled list. He would hit .318/.372/.508 after returning, so any fans worried that Pedroia is in offensive decline probably just need to worry about whether or not his thumb can stay in one piece.