McAdam: Uncertainty surrounds Dustin Pedroia in latest comeback effort

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- After all the surgeries -- four, if you're keeping track -- all the hours of rehab, all the drills, Dustin Pedroia still doesn't know.

He can believe and he can hope, but after all this time, he can't actually know if his latest comeback will be a success.

"I've definitely worked pretty hard to get to this point,'' said Pedroia Friday morning, recounting his long road back. "But I'm taking it one step at a time.''

Pedroia has been here before. A year ago, he arrived in spring training having undergone microfracture surgery in November of 2017, readying himself for the season. After some time in extended spring training and a minor league rehab assignment, he was activated in late May ... and placed back on the DL a week later.

His on-field contribution to the 2018 Red Sox? Three games.

That experience has served to temper Pedroia's expectations. He can still talk a big game, as he did when he assured USA Today last month that he would be the Comeback Player of the Year. That's all part of Pedroia's persona -- fearless, confident and uncompromising.

But reality is something else, and not even Pedroia's bravado can will himself fully healthy.

So this spring finds Pedroia being a little more measured in his approach.

"I'll do what I can do,'' he said when asked about his game plan. "That's basically it. Every day, you show up, try to attack the day, whatever that is, whatever they tell me to do, and I go do it.''

With the benefit of hindsight, Pedroia now knows that he was told to do too much, too soon a year ago. The program was a bit too ambitious and resulted in him being shut down again. A buildup of scar tissue intervened and resulted in yet another procedure last August that effectively ended any plans he had to return in the final month of the season.

"I don't have any restrictions right now,'' he said. "I just have to be smart. That's the thing. I don't need to take 100 ground balls; I need to take whatever it takes for me to get ready for the game and then stop. To limit my time on my feet and make sure I'm always staying on top of things to stay healthy.''

For years, it's been suggested Pedroia ease up on the throttle, to change the way he plays. He may have resisted such a suggestion in the past, because playing hard is how Pedroia is wired and it's not easy for an athlete to ignore his athletic DNA.

But Friday, he seemed to finally make the concession. No more reckless play. No more instances of unnecessarily sacrificing his body.

Finally, Pedroia has learned his lesson. He said that if the Red Sox are leading by 10 runs, he won't throw himself at a ground ball behind the bag and risk the consequences — and hopes the pitcher on the mound will understand.

He understands that a tradeoff has to be made. If he has to resist the temptation to play the way he did 10 years ago in order to remain healthy, he'll make that sacrifice.

"I know everyone thinks I'm crazy and I won't listen to anybody,'' said Pedroia, "but that's not the case. I want to make sure that I'm on the field and doing everything I could to help us win. It's a different situation that we have and we have to find a way to get through it.''

The assumption is that the team's World Series victory last October was crushing to him -- watching his teammates win a championship without him, powerless to contribute. In reality, the team's October run was the perfect elixir following a season of disappointment and setbacks.

If the Sox had lost, he revealed, he would have been devastated. But when they won, Pedroia could be happy for his teammates and find some small satisfaction that his presence, his advice, could have made a small difference.

Some 15 months after his major surgery, in a remarkable admission, Pedroia now says he wouldn't have had the procedure had he known what he was facing. He would have attempted to manage it, rehab differently, and taken his chances with different treatments.

"I wouldn't have done it,'' acknowledged Pedroia. "It's a complicated surgery. There were so many things going into it that I didn't know. I didn't go to medical school.''

The Sox are hopeful that Pedroia can play 125 or so games, but Pedroia won't play a numbers game -- in part because he doesn't want to limit himself, and in part because, frankly, he doesn't know.

"I look at it like I'm OK,'' said Pedroia, "but I have to be smart because if I play out of control or do something, I could wait up the next day and it could be bad. I don't want to work for as long as I have to mess that up.''

Otherwise, another setback awaits. And the next one, Pedroia knows, could be the final one.