FORT MYERS, Fla. -- It's one of the biggest storylines of Red Sox spring training. That's probably why David Price walked into the clubhouse Saturday morning wearing a hoodie with the words "We Need Leaders" on the back.
So when asked about the dynamic in the Red Sox clubhouse when it comes to leadership, Dustin Pedroia was ready to offer his take on the topic.
"I've thought a lot about this you know and I'm thinking, man, you know, you guys write all these stories about how we don't have enough leadership and all this stuff," Pedroia said while meeting with the media. "I'm like, thinking about it, I'm like, when did the Red Sox start getting successful you know from 2002 or whatever on. You know they had Tek [Jason Varitek>. But not only did they have Tek, but they had David [Ortiz>, they had Trot Nixon, they had Johnny Damon. There was a ton of core players that were leaders. And then you look at the next championship they won, they had David, Tek, Mike Lowell, Alex. There's multiple leaders. And then '13, you know there's multiple leaders.
"So I think our core group, our guys that, it's my responsibility, I need them and they need me and we all have to work together. Because it's not one leader. And everybody always says that it's not one guy in baseball. It's me, it's Mookie [Betts>, it's [Xander Bogaerts> Bogey, it's Jackie [Bradley> it's [Andrew Benintendi> Benny. It's our team. So we have to go be together and know that. I know David's gone but you know when Tek was done we were OK. Because he built that into David, and David's built that into me to where I got to do a better job of finding a way to get everybody to realize that it's not one guy, it's everybody. And that's — after thinking about it — that's what it is. It's not, you know we need one leader or one guy on the pitching staff and one guy on the — no, we need everybody. And that's what it takes to win at this level and in this environment, is for everybody to come together and take responsibility and doing it together."
Pedroia was even ready to offer an example of how the whole leadership thing should work.
"I ended up telling [Xander Bogaerts>, we had a workout before our playoff series and I was sitting in the cage by myself and I was hurting and he, Bogey comes in, he's the happiest kid ever," Pedroia remembered. "And he said, 'Hey, what's wrong?' I'm like 'Man Bogey, I don't know if I can — I mean I'm going to be fine to play, but I hope they throw it right down the middle, you know what I mean?' And he goes, 'Oh man, you're gonna be fine.' And I go, 'Bogey see that's what I'm talking about.' There are some days when I come in and I need you and we all need each other so it's OK to be that guy, let it come out. And I think they're all at a point now where they understand that and you can see when their personality comes out. You know Mookie's more vocal. Bogey will be more vocal. Benny's, he'll get there, you know what I mean. Second year. But that's what we need, you know is those guys. It's their team, you know and we got to do it together."
Pedroia came under some fire in 2017 after incidents involving the Red Sox' execution of retaliating against Manny Machado, and the handling of the David Price/Dennis Eckersley situation. After analyzing both of those controversies, the second baseman also was willing to offer some honest reflection.
"I think as a team, no, we were together all the time," he said. "You know, those things happen. I mean it's baseball. I think when you sit back and look at it. Could it have been handled differently? Without question. I mean, 100 percent. It's like everything in life. You make mistakes and then you don't make mistakes. So, you know you learn from it, you move forward, you understand if you're in another situation like that if you want to do something different, do something different. And that's what we all took out of it."
Pedroia explains how he views Red Sox clubhouse without David Ortiz pic.twitter.com/Xx3Zr9UJcY
— Rob Bradford (@bradfo) February 17, 2018
