Alex Cora and Dustin Pedroia were reacquainted when Cora was named manager of the Boston Red Sox ahead of the 2018 season.
The two spent the 2006-08 seasons as teammates and Cora was asked by then-manager Terry Francona to “help out with” Pedroia during his first full season in Major League Baseball in 2007. Pedroia went on to win the American League Rookie of the Year.
Fast forward to 2019 and Cora is entering his second year as Boston’s skipper with Pedroia still on the roster, and Cora said his relationship with the second baseman hasn’t changed despite shifting from manager and player rather than teammates.
“For me, it’s been always easy to deal with Pedey,” Cora said, via MassLive. “There was a reason they put me right next to him in the clubhouse in ’07. And there’s a reason Tito (Terry Francona) asked me to help him out with hm. Our relationship will never change. I appreciate him, (his wife) Kelli, the kids. They’re awesome what they mean to our family, especially my daughter. She loves them. I do, too.”
As for their relationship on the field?
“But as far as the baseball side of it, it’s been easy. Always,” Cora added. “He’s not the young kid that just screams to the world, ‘I’m going to be fine, this and that.’ Now he’s an old man. Don’t tell him that. He’s a veteran guy that he understands the process. He needs to be patient. Although sometimes for him it’s a little bit harder because he wants to play so bad. This is what he loves. This is his passion. If it was up to Pedey, he’d play MLB, then he’d play winter ball, too. The whole year. Yeah, I have a good relationship with him. I know what he’s all about. I know how important he is.”
Pedroia was limited to just three games in 2018 due to complications from knee surgery in Oct. 2017. He made his spring training debut Thursday and plans to be ready for Opening Day.
