Dustin Pedroia to begin season in extended spring training

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Dustin Pedroia's return to regular season play is going to have to wait. Maybe not for long and maybe not beyond the Red Sox' home opener. But at least a little while longer.

The Red Sox made that official Monday morning with the announcement Pedroia will begin the 2019 season in the same spot his 2018 season started: in extended spring training.

Pedroia will play several more games this week, the Red Sox' final cluster of games in Florida, then travel with the Sox to Mesa, Az. to take part in two exhibition games against the Chicago Cubs this coming weekend.

But when the rest of the roster moves on to Seattle to begin the regular season March 28, Pedroia will return to Fort Myers to continue to build up strength in his surgically-repaired left knee.

"We're running out of time,'' said Alex Cora. "There's been no setbacks, nothing out of the ordinary. It's just that we feel we need more time to do the back-to-backs, more innings. There's no target date (for his activation). I think the target date is the day he shows up and we're comfortable with where he's at and he'll be ready.



"We need to keep the progression. We feel if we err on the safe side, it's going to be a lot better. We have to play it safe and he'll be fine. It's not that we don't feel comfortable with where he's at; actually, it's the other way around. He understands. Obviously (he was) a little bit down. But there was no push back. He had certain goals and we respect that.

"But this is not only for this year; it's a plan for three years. We need him to keep playing and he'll be OK.''

"It is what it is,'' shrugged Pedroia of the news. "I don't think the team was expecting me to come in and look the way I look, so they just want to make sure they do it right. That's basically it. They've had to hold me back. I mean, I'm ready for Opening Day. It's just that they're scared. No one's ever come back from something like this.

"They want to make sure I follow the right steps to do that and make sure everyone's 100 percent confident that when I do come back, I stay and not have any issues. I feel like I'm ready, but they want to see how my knee responds when I (play back-to-back). Which I understand. I appreciate that. So, we'll just go from there.''

While Cora stated several times the Sox did not have a target date in mind for Pedroia's activation, the veteran infielder may have contradicted that when he noted "it's only, I think, a week or something, the plan that they've set. So if it's, 'Be smart for a week,' and we make sure I respond great to everything thrown at me, then it's a great decision.''

Asked if he thought he could be ready for the home opener on April 9, Pedroia said: "We"ll see. Hopefully. I feel like I'm ready now. Once I build up more innings and we see how everything responds, that's the big test. But I definitely feel like I'm ready for that. We'll see.''

Pedroia has played 13 innings over a handful of games to date. He's due to play Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, plus one of the two games in Mesa early next week.

The move to start Pedroia on the Injured List means the Red Sox will carry 13 pitchers as they play 11 games in 11 days.

"It's always beneficial,'' said Cora of the extra arm. "It's not a great situation because were expecting (Pedroia) to be part of (the Opening Day roster), but we'll take advantage of the situation. We've got capable guys who can play second, they can play multiple positions and they're good players. We feel comfortable with the roster and now we're flexible enough pitching-wise and that's going to help us.''

With Pedroia sidelined, the Sox will have Brock Holt and Eduardo Nunez handle second base duties, with playing time largely determined by matchups.