The Red Sox Need To Do Something About Trevor Story At Shortstop

In March of 2022, the Boston Red Sox signed shortstop Trevor Story to a six-year, $140 million contract. In 2022, his first year in Boston, he had a career low in in every offensive category. And then in 2023, he performed even worse. Through the first two years of his deal, he slashed .227/.287/.398, and people in Boston began to regret the deal, especially with so many great middle infielders in the system.

Just eight games into the 2024 season, Trevor Story dove for a hard-hit Mike Trout liner, and tore up his shoulder. At the time, he wasn’t tearing the cover off the ball, but he was providing steady defense at shortstop and strong leadership in the clubhouse. When he got hurt, there was a belief within the organization that he had turned a corner and would provide the type of offensive production that made him a nearly 7 bWAR player in 2019. Alas, is was not meant to be.

Story came back to the club in September of last year and played in 18 games, slashing .270/.361/.429. There was just enough there to make the team excited about the 2025 season, and the hope that the shortstop would finally live up to the hype in the fourth year of his contract. It started out well enough. Through 32 games, he was slashing .272/.314/.421, with five home runs and six stolen bases. But then it all went south. Coming into this week, Story is slashing .222/.269/.325, accruing a total of 0.1 bWAR a third of the way through the season.

To make matters worse, his defense has fallen off…considerably. In 2023 Story had a Total Zone Rating of 26 (meaning he was 26 runs better than average over 1200 innings). This year, he is at -15. In 2018 he had his previous low mark, with a +3. He currently has a -0.9 defensive fWAR.

The Red Sox are chalk full of youngsters who would like to get some reps on the infield. The recent injuries to first baseman Triston Casas (knee) and Alex Bregman (quad) have opened the door for prospect wunderkind Marcelo Mayer to make his major league debut. Unfortunately, it has been at third base, a position he played in six games and 48 total innings in pro ball before getting called up to play there against the Orioles. And because former third baseman Rafael Devers has refused to play first base, the club has had one of their other top prospects, Kristian Campbell, taking grounders there before games in the hopes that he can figure out the position on the fly.

The Red Sox have a bunch of players who could slot in at shortstop and be an improvement over Story’s production. Campbell could slide over from second base; Mayer is a natural shortstop; so, too, is Ceddanne Rafaela, who is currently playing a Gold Glove-caliber center field. If the Red Sox were serious about winning, and cultivating their young core of talent, Rafaela would move from the grass to the dirt, then they would have Jarren Duran move from left to right, and bring up minor league star Roman Anthony to play left field. In Triple-A Worcester this season, all he has done is slash .318/.450./.528, with eight home runs.

And if the Red Sox want to try something totally different, they could bench Campbell, who is mired in an 8-for-75 slump over the past 19 games, with a 23-4 strikeout to walk ratio. And then they could move Story to second, where he was extremely respectable in in 2022, playing 94 games there when Xander Bogaerts was still Boston’s shortstop. Maybe with less ground to cover and the shorter throw, Story’s defense will improve. And maybe if his defense improves, that will help his offense. He is just 15 for his last 118, with one extra base hit (a double), one multi-hit game, and 41 strikeouts.

For the Red Sox to contend this season, something has to change at short, or this season will soon become long, with no post-season in sight.