Boston Red Sox Manager Gives Vote of Confidence to Struggling Veteran
· Yahoo Sports
In a season that has been chock-full of them, it was another day to forget at the plate for Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story as the Sox fell to the San Diego Padres on Sunday afternoon by a final score of 8-6. The Red Sox are now 2-7.
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Story entered Sunday's rubber match hitting a paltry .108 in the first eight games of the season, good for eighth-worst among qualified big leaguers, striking out a whopping 40.5% of the time, a mark that ranks him in the bottom 12 in baseball.
While his 1-5 performance in Sunday afternoon's loss will raise his batting average to .118, the pair of strikeouts don't do much to lower his high strikeout rate.
Not only has Story struggled mightily at the plate, but he also has yet to look the part defensively. Coming off a season where he committed the third-most errors among big league shortstops (19) and his arm strength diminished as the season went on, it has been more of the same to start 2026. Story entered Sunday with two errors already and thanks to a second-inning throwing error, now finds himself tied for the second-most errors in baseball.
Everything is going wrong for Trevor Story right now.
— Tyler Milliken (@tylermilliken_) April 5, 2026
Just can't say you're focusing on run prevention if this is going to happen on a regular basis. https://t.co/krPCfcTUHKpic.twitter.com/0AIrQD19JA
With Marcelo Mayer, a projected plus defender, waiting in the wings to take over the shortstop position, the noise is only going to get louder as Story continues to struggle defensively.
Despite that, Red Sox manager Alex Cora is sticking with his veteran leader. When asked after Sunday's loss if he still liked Story at the top of the lineup, Cora responded, "I still like Trevor Story as a player."
No stranger to tough starts...It had been a rough go of things for Story in his three seasons in a Red Sox uniform after signing a 6-year, $140 million contract in March of 2022. A litany of injuries saw the former Colorado Rockie play in just 163 games, where he hit just .232 over the first three years of his deal with Boston.
Finally healthy and ready to contribute to the team that inked him to a six-year pact, it was a nightmarish start to 2025 for Story, who found himself hitting just .217 through his first 60 games.
However, from that point on, Story became one of the Red Sox' most important hitters. From June 8th until the end of the season, Story hit .290, a mark that would rank him in the top 20 in baseball among qualified batters with a weighted runs created plus (wRC+) that saw him as a 26% better than league average player.
Jul 4, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story (10) celebrates in the dugout by wearing a Wally head after hitting a home run against the Washington Nationals during the eighth inning at Nationals Park. Rafael Suanes-Imagn ImagesAfter the offseason departure of Alex Bregman, as well as the hole in the lineup still left unfilled from the Rafael Devers trade, the Red Sox will need Story to have a similar turnaround at the plate. As for his glove, it appears to be only a matter of time before Mayer takes over as the next franchise cornerstone at shortstop.
Story and the Red Sox will look to turn things around starting Monday evening when they kick off a three-game series with the Milwaukee Brewers at Fenway Park. First pitch set for 6:45 p.m. ET.
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