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Let's preface this the right way: don't panic, everything is fine.
That having been said, remember how Dustin Pedroia played all of 2013 with a completely torn UCL? And remember how playing through the injury wasn't supposed to make it worse? Well, that didn't quite end up being the case. Pedroia told Jackie MacMullan of ESPN Boston that the whole "playing 175 games" thing ended up producing some complications after all:
"I guess because I played with [the injury] the whole year, it's made it a little tougher," Pedroia explained. "If they do the normal surgery, there has to be some good endings [of the ligament] to re-attach it. If there's not, we have to do it a different way."
That different way? Essentially the thumb version of Tommy John Surgery, at least according to Dr. Pedroia's expert opinion. That's a scary name for something that, in essence, should have no practical impact on Pedroia's recovery. The difference in recovery time between the typical procedure and the more complicated version, which involves taking a tendon from Pedroia's wrist, is all of about two weeks. In other words, he should be good-to-go for spring training regardless of how the procedure is performed.
Pedroia's surgery is currently scheduled for November 12th.