Ahead of Friday night's game in St.Louis, the skipper discussed the possibility of making a change at the shortstop position.
Ahead of the Boston Red Sox' 3-2 loss at the hands of the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night, Red Sox manager Alex Cora met with the media, where he was asked about shortstop Trevor Story's defensive play to start the season.
For the second-year in a row, Story is off to a slow start, both at the plate and in the field. Entering play on Friday, Story's .391 OPS ranked seventh-worst in baseball and his 34.5% strikeout rate was good for 14th-worst. Perhaps his most glaring issue at the dish is his 48.2% swing rate at pitches outside of the zone, the second worst mark in the sport.
Defensively, his outs-above-average of -2 ranked in the 11th percentile among shortstops, while defensive runs saved is more favorable at zero. In terms of sheer counting stats, he's already committed three errors, which is tied for third-most among all fielders and second-most for any shortstop.
Yet, despite Story's defensive struggles, Cora is sticking with the veteran. "He is who he is. Range-wise, a lot better than last year. Outcome is inconsistent with that. But we like him as the shortstop… He’s our shortstop, and he’s been elite throughout his career. You’re going to go through stretches. It happened early in the season for him."
It's been a steady decline defensively for Story, who was once one of the position's premier defenders. In 2019 when still with the Rockies, Story posted a 21 DRS, third among all shortstops, with 18 outs above average, which ranked fourth at the position. Since coming to Boston, Story has slowly become one of the worst defenders by both OAA and DRS, culminating in a -3 DRS last year, third-worst among qualified shortstops, and a -9 OAA, which ranked him fourth-worst.
In terms of arm strength, Story has never been better than middle of the pack; since Baseball Savant started tracking the statistic in 2020, his highest finish in overall arm strength was 25th among shortstops, a mark he achieved in 2025.
Ironically, Story's best defensive season since 2019 in Colorado came in 2022, when, thanks to Xander Bogaerts, Story was forced to play second base, where he posted an OAA of 10, third among second basemen, with a DRS of six, ranking him sixth among second basemen (minimum 800 innings).
Meanwhile, the Red Sox have Marcelo Mayer poised to take over as the franchise shortstop, and according to SoxProspects.com, Mayer profiles as a much better defensive shortstop than Story, saying, "Potential above-average defender at short for the foreseeable future. Plus arm, plenty for shortstop. Confident in his arm and able to make all the throws with plenty of zip." in their scouting report of Mayer.
The Red Sox, however, have no plans of moving Story off the position, at least for now.
The Red Sox will take on the Cardinals in game two of their weekend series at Busch Stadium on Saturday night. Ranger Suarez will get the ball opposite Kyle Leahy for St. Louis. First pitch set for 7:15 p.m. ET.
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