When Dustin Pedroia had knee surgery on Oct. 25 of last year, he knew he wouldn't be ready to go come Opening Day.
Even though the second baseman isn't on the field with the rest of his teammates, he's making progress with his rehab.
Speaking before Tuesday's game against the Yankees, manager Alex Cora said Pedroia ran the bases for the first time and will go to Fort Myers next Tuesday after the homestand to rehab in the warmer weather.
"He's still a work in progress," Cora said. "If you talk to him he's going to say he's homeless there. We're going to take it easy with him. It's a big step. For him it'll be better now to go to Fort Myers with the weather and the controlled environment and go from there. You've seen him taking groundballs. He's moving well. I said it two days ago, he's moving better than he moved in October. I'm very happy with the progress."
Although he will be in Fort Myers, he won't get into extended spring training games right away.
"No, not quite," Cora said. "Probably track pitches most likely. We don't want him to run the bases yet. I think as controlled of an environment that we can have for him to at least start getting to baseball activities."
Of course, Pedroia isn't anywhere close to returning to the major league team, but him returning to Fort Myers seems to be a positive sign in his recovery.
Eduardo Nunez has been getting the majority of the starts at second base in Pedroia's absence.
