Red Sox 2B Pedroia won't report to spring training on time

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — Injured second baseman Dustin Pedroia won't report to spring training with the rest of the Red Sox position players next week, manager Ron Roenicke said Thursday in somewhat of a eulogy for the former MVP's career.

“He's a special player,” Roenicke said after confirming what had been suspected since it was reported that Pedroia had a setback in his latest attempt to rehab his left knee. “All the things you like from a player, he's got.”

A four-time All-Star who was the AL rookie of the year in 2007 and the AL MVP in his second season, Pedroia has played in just nine games the last two seasons while trying to recover from the injury he sustained when Baltimore's Manny Machado slid spikes-high into his knee in May 2017.

For the third straight spring, the team was hoping Pedroia could return to the lineup. For the third straight spring, those plans have been thwarted. Boston signed infielder José Peraza to a one-year deal in December, and Michael Chavis also plays second base.

The sad part, Roenicke said, was watching a career cut short because of injury.

“When a guy just ages and then he's not as good, that part's easy to see. But not a guy who has an injury and because of it has not been able to perform," Roenicke said. “That part is really difficult.”

The longest-tenured player on the Red Sox roster, Pedroia was a key part of the team's 2007 World Series championship and he helped win another in 2013. He had surgery after the 2017 season and admitted to rushing back the next year; he played in only three games in late May before going back on the disabled list, while the Red Sox earned a franchise-record 108 wins and another championship.

Despite vowing to be more cautious in his return the next year, Pedroia made it just six...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Red-Sox-2B-Pedroia-won-t-report-to-spring-15054147.php