“They have to hold me back. I
FORT MYERS — Dustin Pedroia’s spring has followed a familiar path: Intense athlete wants to push it harder, faster, feels ready to remove the training wheels. The medical staff reminds him not yet.
That’s why the Red Sox decision against having him on the Opening Day roster, announced Monday morning by manager Alex Cora, didn’t take the fiery second baseman by surprise.
“They have to hold me back,” Pedroia said. “I’m ready for Opening Day. It’s just they’re scared. No one’s ever come back from something like this (cartilage restoration knee surgery) and they want me to make sure I follow the right steps to do that and make sure everyone’s 100 percent confident that when I come back I stay back and don’t have any issues.”
Pedroia has looked quick in the field, but hasn’t yet played in back-to-back games and has played as many as five innings just twice, including today’s intrasquad game.
“We’re running out of time,” Cora said. “No setbacks, nothing out of the ordinary. We just feel we need more time to do the back-to-backs and more innings.”
Cora said there is no target date for his second baseman’s return and Pedroia indicated the plan calls for an extra week in Fort Myers and added that although a short injury rehabilitation assignment playing for one of the Red Sox minor league affiliates has not been discussed, but likely would take place.
