The Boston Red Sox have been playing solid baseball recently, winning their last two series and four of their last six games with a pivotal series at home against the Arizona Diamondbacks coming up.
Boston has most of their starting lineup back that they started the year with, and even shortstop Trevor Story, who suffered a fractured glenoid in his left shoulder back in April that forced him to have surgery that was expected to end his season, is nearing a return.
However, with things going well with the offense right now, should the Red Sox tell Story to take his time and focus on returning during the 2025 season?
If Story were to return at this point in the year, he'd likely have to take time to figure things out at the plate, as he hasn't faced big-league pitching in nearly five months. On top of that, the injury was suffered to his throwing shoulder while diving for a ball. That may affect his throwing and willingness to go all out for a ball again.
The Red Sox would also have to choose who to take out of the lineup for Story, who again, likely won't be playing his best ball right out of the gate.
Boston's most obvious choice would be David Hamilton, but even he's turned it back around recently, hitting .298 with a .940 OPS, three home runs and nine RBIs in his last 15 games.
Ceddanne Rafaela has been filling in at Story's position at shortstop, and he's been electric both in the field and at the plate, providing the team with plenty of clutch hits this year even if he's only has a .707 OPS in 124 games.
The Red Sox could move Rafaela back to the outfield, but that would mean two of Jarren Duran, Tyler O'Neill, Wilyer Abreu and Rob Refsnyder wouldn't be out there. Even if you moved one of them to designated hitter, that would put Masataka Yoshida, who is hitting 3.46 with a .950 OPS, seven home runs and 33 RBIs over his 45 games, on the bench.
It's simply a numbers game right now. It's too late in the season and too many guys are hitting too well for Boston to try and force Story back into the lineup just because he's making $22.5 million this year and wants to play.
Someone needs to step up and tell him to take all of the time he needs and prepare for next season where he can fight for his spot back.
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