There is no built-in feature in pandoc that compiles pandoc-style citations to the cite package format.
A quick workaround would be to first use the --natbib flag in pandoc to convert to natbib:
pandoc article.md -s --natbib -o article.tex
then use the following sed commands to rename all the citations from \citet and \citep to \cite as well as change the natbib package in the preamble to cite: