NEW YORK -- Welcome back, Dustin Pedroia. How long might you be staying?
Pedroia was reinstated from the disabled list on Friday and is expected to reintegrated into the Boston Red Sox lineup. He missed all but one game in August due to two trips to the DL with a left knee injury that president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski recently said is something "we're going to have to watch for the rest of his career."
It's fair, then, to wonder whether Pedroia will be able to return to an everyday role at second base, the position he has played since his debut in 2006 and one that has taken a physical toll on much larger players over the years.
"We changed a lot on how to take care of it. So far, so good," said Pedroia, who declined to get into specifics. "Testing it, the amount of stuff I've put on it, the next day coming in and I'm OK. As long as that keeps happening I don't think there will be that much of a limit."
Asked if he will be able to play with his usual all-out aggressiveness, Pedroia didn't flinch.
"Absolutely," he said.
Pedroia's most recent comeback lasted a total of four days. He went 0-for-4 with a walk and scored a run as the designated hitter in a 2-0 victory Aug. 8 at Tampa Bay, then was unable to play the next day. Even after two days off, he couldn't play in the Aug. 11 opener of a series at Yankee Stadium and returned to the disabled list on Aug. 12.
The Red Sox took it slow with Pedroia this time around, and the way Eduardo Nunez played in his place, nobody could blame them. Entering Thursday night's series opener against the Yankees, Nunez was batting .320 with seven homers and a .919 OPS in 29 games after being acquired in a trade with the San Francisco Giants.
Since Pedroia's last start at second base, on July 28 at Fenway Park against the Kansas City Royals, the Red Sox are 19-9.
"We've got a great team," Pedroia said. "We're pretty confident if one guy goes down somebody else will step up and fill that role."
Pedroia's return will cause manager John Farrell to come up with creative ways to find at-bats for Nunez. Although Nunez also plays shortstop and third base, the Sox have those positions filled by Xander Bogaerts and rookie sensation Rafael Devers.
But if Farrell is able to get Pedroia to see the value in sitting out a few times a week or DHing -- especially with the postseason looming and the Red Sox holding a comfortable lead in the American League East -- Nunez can still get considerable time at second base.
"He hasn't been in games for weeks," Farrell said of Pedroia. "So, whether it's his knee, low back, hamstrings, just getting back active, there's going to be some things we'll have to monitor. Pedey's wanting to be on the field as he has for the last month, but I think we also have to be realistic, too, in that there's going to be some progression here to the point where hopefully it's unrestricted, nine innings for consecutive days over a long run."
Said Pedroia: "There's things you can play through and things that you can't. You do the best you can. That's basically it. We all know what I have. We all have all the information."
In other moves, the Red Sox recalled catcher Blake Swihart, first baseman Sam Travis and pitchers Austin Maddox and Roenis Elias were recalled from Triple-A Pawtucket.