Opening Day possible for Pedroia, who doesn't need offseason surgery

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BOSTON — Dustin Pedroia is not planning on having surgery on his left knee and could be ready for Opening Day, Sox president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said Monday.

Pedroia was limited to just three big league games in 2018 and had an arthroscopic procedure on the knee in July. That was after he underwent major surgery on the knee in October 2017.

“He has continued rehab and therapy. And that’s what he is going to continue to do,” Dombrowski said on a conference call. “He will do that through about the middle of December. And start then some additional, then get back into exercising, more physical activities other than the therapy at that point. And then around the middle, sometime in January, beginning of January, middle of January, start running at that point. So we’re hopeful he’ll be ready for the season. So really with that prognosis, I would think most of our — I can never say it’s over, because you just never know what ends up taking place. But we’re really, as far as position players, pretty well set.”

On the chance Pedroia is hampered again by injury, Dombrowski projected a feeling that the Sox have enough depth at the position. They’re in the market for a minor league free agent who could come to camp as a non-roster invitee, rather than looking for a big-league addition. Ian Kinsler, who handled a lot of second base down the stretch, is a free agent.

“The reality is if you look at our club, there’s not a lot of holes there from a positional player perspective,” Dombrowski said. “We’re hopeful that Dustin will be fine. I think if we’re going to look to protect ourself, of course we have Brock [Holt], we’ve got Tzu-Wei Lin, we’ve got Eduardo Nunez. 

“I would think that those people [we may pursue] would be more of a… non-roster invitee at this time, for the simple fact that we just don’t have any positions to really promise anyone.”

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