Pedey plays it smart and slow
FORT MYERS — Dustin Pedroia wanted to play last night. That’s the fun version of the story. A meaningless exhibition game against the Cubs, with Pedroia five months removed from major knee surgery, and the Red Sox’ through-a-brick-wall second baseman wanted to be in the lineup. He even petitioned manager Alex Cora to let him play.
“He knows I’m joking,” Pedroia admitted. “I don’t know if that’s possible to have the surgery that I had and play a game in five months. If it did, you’d be writing about that, (and) you’re not going to be writing about that.”
Reality is, Pedroia is at least three weeks away from beginning his own version of spring training, and he’s nowhere near being game ready. And he’s not pretending to be. Everything about his recovery from late-October surgery has been positive and as expected, he said, but all expectations are relatively vague and uncertain.
Pedroia doesn’t have a definite return date, and he’s not trying to force one, but he’s starting to see the baseball light at the end of his rehab tunnel.
“Obviously, with me, everybody knows I’d rather play,” Pedroia said. “I’d hope to play in this game. But that wouldn’t be smart.”
What is smart, Pedroia said, is the way the Red Sox training staff has moved him methodically through the rehab process. For a bit of context, consider Sox starter Steven Wright, who had a similar procedure to address cartilage damage in early May. He’s had basically twice as much recovery time, and had to be placed on the disabled list yesterday after a platelet rich plasma injection. No true setback, Cora said, just a reality of the procedure.
“It’s a part of it, man,” Pedroia said. “I knew getting into it. Steven had similar surgery to me, but I had micro-fracture, too. He’s still trying to come back from that. Everybody’s different. I’m at five months. He’s at almost 11. Everybody reacts differently, you just have to stay focused, stay with the process. Kind of stay calm when you have an issue.”
Pedroia is currently doing strengthening exercises and a running progression with relatively minimal baseball activities. He’s still in the healing stage.
“So, you could push it,” he said. “But not too hard. Don’t push through (any pain).”
An example of his current workouts: On a day when he does leg weight training, he might do 10 sets of 50-yard strides, which basically means jogging at roughly 70 percent effort. The next day, he would do the same strides, but in a pool to minimize impact. The next day, agility work. Every day, see how he’s responded before moving to the next step.
He recently went through a fairly heavy strengthening program, so he had the past five days off to let his body recover. He’s now entering another three-week phase of building strength and stability. He did a leg workout yesterday. He hopes to hit the field and take some ground balls today. He’s done that before, but it’s not an everyday thing.
“After these next three weeks, baseball will be the main priority,” Pedroia said. “It will take over from the lifting and running progression.”
In three weeks, Pedroia basically will shift from a rehab mindset to true baseball preparation. At least, that’s the plan. Again, there’s no definitive timetable, but it seems April can be safely ruled out.
“My goal out of the whole thing was, when I come back and play baseball, that I could enjoy it and (just) play baseball instead of going through what I had to go through (last year),” Pedroia said. “When I come back, to be back and not have to play two games and have my knee look like a basketball. (The trainers) are doing a good job.”
Pedroia will be with the Red Sox on Opening Day in Tampa, and also in Boston for the home opener. The plan is for him to stay with the team until he needs a minor league environment to begin playing games.
“Let’s be honest,” Cora said. “For him to be there in my first big league (game as a manager), it’ll be special for me. I think it’s special for him, too. Just to be there the first day. I know he hates the fact that he’s not going to be in the lineup. He’ll get close, then he’ll disappear and go somewhere, either (in Fort Myers) or wherever he has to go to get his at-bats, and we’ll go from there.”
Getting there will take a little more time, but it’s getting closer by the day.