Shortstop Trevor Story’s slumping play puts Red Sox in a dilemma
The Red Sox have played 40 games, a quarter of the season. That’s enough of a sample size to write this: There are some tough decisions to be made regarding Trevor Story.
The veteran shortstop was booed loudly on several occasions at Fenway Park on Sunday during a 4-1 loss against the Rays.
Story’s error in the third inning led to two runs scoring, and he was 1 for 4 with three strikeouts. That actually raised his batting average to .200 and his OPS to .520.
The error was a turning point in the game. Up, 1-0, the Rays had a runner on second with one out in the third inning when Chandler Simpson hit a bouncing ball to shortstop.
It popped over Story’s glove and into left field. Nick Fortes, who was running on contact, scored from second. Simpson went to second when Jarren Duran made an ill-advised throw to the plate.
Ben Williamson followed with an RBI single, and Tampa Bay had a 3-0 lead.
Oddly, the play was ruled an RBI single for Simpson and an error on Story because Fortes scored, and the Sox weren’t charged with any unearned runs.
Story acknowledged he hesitated, thinking he could throw Fortes out at third, and the hop ate him up.
“That’s all it takes,” he said. “I get the tough hop. If I was playing more aggressive, got a better hop … I thought for a split second, I should get him out and kind of took my focus off the ball a little bit. So, yeah, it’s on me.”
Interim manager Chad Tracy said he thinks Story’s defense “has been great” this season.
“I think my broad overview of the time here has been, man, we catch the ball,” Tracy said.
In general, that’s true of the team as a whole. But Story has graded out as a slightly below-average shortstop based on defensive runs saved and outs above average. The fielding run value metric computed by Statcast tells the same story, and his five errors are tied for third-most among all shortstops.
Story was excellent at shortstop in 2023 after Xander Bogaerts signed with the Padres, but he has regressed since and is the weakest of their infielders defensively this season.
Putting Marcelo Mayer at shortstop with Story at second base is an experiment worth undertaking, if only to see how Mayer looks there as top prospect Franklin Arias tears up Double-A.
Read more Mailbag: If the Patriots trade for A.J. Brown, what moves might offset the added salary?
Story turns 34 in November and is signed only through 2027. Playing Mayer at shortstop will give the Sox more information as they map out the future. Story hasn’t played second since 2022, but played the position at a high level.
The Sox have such a thin margin for error that upgrading the defense at one position could make a difference.
Story and the Sox hope the offensive side of the equation is a matter of time. They’ve been through this before.
Story had a .581 OPS after 58 games last season and hit .287 with an .825 OPS the rest of the season. He has earned the right to swing his way out of his slump. But should Story be hitting fourth or fifth until he does?
He has struck out 14 times in his last 25 plate appearances, and a whopping 33 percent of the time this season. That’s untenable.
Former manager Alex Cora dropped Story to the sixth spot in the order seven times earlier this season. But Tracy has kept Story fourth or fifth since he took over.
That’s understandable. Story has been an everyday player since 2022 and is widely respected as a clubhouse leader. Tracy wasn’t going to come in and make radical changes to a team that was reeling emotionally.
And it’s not like the Sox are loaded with middle-of-the-order hitters, given their unwillingness to fully invest in the lineup during the offseason.
Story hopes he’ll figure it out more quickly than he did last season. It doesn’t help that the Sox fired all the hitting coaches who knew him well.
“If I knew exactly what it was, you could kind of fix it right away. But that’s not baseball, and there’s a lot that goes into it,” he said. “I think it’s just a matter of time before I get it right. We saw what can happen last year, so I’m confident I can do it again.”
Story said it can be a matter of trying to do too much sometimes. Sunday felt like one of those days, and the crowd of 33,489 — not a sellout on a sunny 70-degree Sunday — let him know it with how loudly they booed the strikeouts.
“Just keep working,” Story said. “That’s all I can do.”
Post Comment