Pedroia out at least 7 months after left knee surgery

Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia underwent left knee surgery on Wednesday that repaired cartilage in his troublesome knee, the team announced. As a result, he's expected to miss seven months of action - a timetable that could delay his return in 2018 to late May at the earliest.

The surgery was performed at New York's Hospital for Special Surgery, and according to MassLive's Jen McCaffrey is the same procedure that ended Red Sox right-hander Steven Wright's season this past May.

"The feeling is that Pedey should return to his pre-injury playing form," Red Sox president Dave Dombrowski told Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston.

Pedroia had been hampered by knee issues for much of 2017, and served two separate stints on the disabled list this past year with what the team called left knee inflammation. The knee problems, which first popped up after being spiked by Baltimore's Manny Machado in April, limited him to just one game between July 28 and Sept. 1.

In the aftermath of the Red Sox being eliminated from the playoffs, Pedroia had reportedly been mulling whether or not to take his knee in for surgery. Earlier this month he acknowledged to ESPN's Scott Lauber that any surgery could take "a long time" to recover from, something that was apparently playing into his line of thinking.

Pedroia hit .293/.369/.392 with seven homers and 19 doubles during his 2017 season, while appearing in just 105 games due to a variety of ailments, including the knee problems. He struggled during the Red Sox brief playoff run, going just 2-for-16 in their American League Division Series loss to Houston.

The 34-year-old is under contract with Boston through 2021, and is owed a total of $56 million over the next four seasons.