Dustin Pedroia has formally announced his retirement from baseball.

The Boston Red Sox second baseman hasn't played since 2019 because of a knee injury suffered two seasons earlier.

"Could it have ended better and I finished my career the right way? Yeah of course," Pedroia said. "But there was a reason I was the first one dressed at 5:30 for a 7 o'clock game. I always tell my teammates that you never know if the game is going to start early. My biggest thing in my mind was that this could be my last game and you don't know. That's the best way I approached it from Little League on. I had the best time playing."

As recently as January 2020, Pedroia planned to return, working with the Red Sox to rehabilitate his knee. After waking up one morning with his knee once again swelling, he learned that he would need a partial knee replacement. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the surgery was delayed until December 2020.

"I wasn't in a good place. I grinded every day just to be able to play with my kids and just live a normal life," Pedroia said. "My knee was bad, and I'm a young guy. I had the surgery, and a week later, I could tell I could walk without pain. I could do everything except run. I can't run anymore, but who needs that. Once I had the surgery, nobody had ever played with a partial knee replacement. If it breaks, my life would be severely impacted by it."