Not a good Storyline
Second baseman’s sluggish start brings back memories of Crawford
If it wasn’t for the $140 million due to him over the next six years, the fact that he’s hitting so poorly out of the leadoff spot and the idea that he could soon be replacing the best franchise player the Red Sox have had in a long time, maybe it’d be easy to forget about Trevor Story.
If the Red Sox’ offense was clicking the way it can — the way it usually does — the Sox could bury him at the bottom of the order and let him quietly find a rhythm.
But none of those things are true. And Red Sox fans are smart enough to know it.
For the first time since signing a massive contract with the Sox in March, Story heard from an angry crowd that booed him after his fourth consecutive strikeout on Thursday, when the Sox were handled by Shohei Ohtani and the Angels in an 8-0 loss at Fenway Park.
Story faced Ohtani four times and saw a total of 20 pitches. He swung at 12 of them, hitting three foul balls and missing the other nine.
After striking out Story for the fourth time to end the seventh inning, Ohtani screamed and pumped his fist. Story chucked his bat. And the crowd let him hear it.
“Expectations here are what they are,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “What the fans expect are the same things he expects. That’s part of the
equation.”
After the game, Story was not available to reporters who waited for him for more than an hour after the final pitch. A Sox spokesperson said Story was still in the batting cages taking extra swings as the clubhouse closed to media access.
“He’s working hard,” Cora said. “Very structured. Always competing. Working at it. Working at second base. Since Day 1, the work ethic, the way he goes about it, it hasn’t changed.”
It can’t get much worse for Story now, can it?
After his golden sombrero on Cinco de Mayo,
Story’s average fell to .210 and his OPS dropped to .589, which ranks 140th out of 179 qualified players. It’s not ideal for a guy making an average of $23.3 million per year, which makes him the third-highest paid second baseman of all-time.
And it’s killing the Sox out of the leadoff spot, where he’s hitting .196 in 16 games.
Asked if he’ll make any changes to the Sox lineup to begin a new series with the White Sox at Fenway on Friday, Cora said, “We’ll see. We have to be ready. They have some good pitching, too, so we’ll do what we have to
do to try to win a game.”
Where Story hits in the lineup is probably less of a concern. How he rebounds from his first time getting booed at Fenway and the pressure that comes with a $140 million contract with the Red Sox is of greater magnitude.
The name that comes to mind is Carl Crawford, who didn’t seem like a perfect fit in Boston when he left the Rays to sign a seven-year, $142 million contract with the Sox in 2011.
Crawford hit .155 with a .431 OPS in his first month in Boston, and while he improved slightly from there, his struggles continued through two years before the Sox pulled the plug and shipped him off to Los Angeles in a massive salary dump. Crawford was similarly booed as he looked lost at the plate in the early going, and the pressure surely didn’t help.
Story also came from a low-pressure environment while with the Colorado Rockies, who played in just five playoff games during his six-year tenure. While with the Rockies, he never finished a single month without a home run.
In the Sox’ first 26 games of the season, Story has yet to go deep. But to blame it on the ballpark wouldn’t be fair, either; Story simply isn’t making contact.
He’s struck out 29 times in 81 at-bats, a rate of 36% that is substantially higher than his career average of 31%. He’s making contact just 71% of the time, close to a careerlow and below his 74% average.
And he can’t touch a fastball.
All of that points to a player who simply has bad timing or bad mechanics. It’s also fair to wonder if he’s feeling the pressure after the big contract, particularly given the fallout related to Xander Bogaerts, who was lowballed in extension talks and is likely to hit free agency after the season.
If Story can’t perform now while at second base and hidden in a lineup that features at least three other hitters — Bogaerts, Rafael Devers and J.D. Martinez — with more established big league careers, how will he perform next year when it’s just Story and Devers as the lone All-Star holdovers?
Crawford and Story are tied together as those who have signed free-agent deals with the Red Sox worth at least $50 million, then struggled out of the gate.
The others: Manny Ramirez, J.D. Drew, Pablo Sandoval, Hanley Ramirez and Martinez all had great starts in the first months of their careers in Boston, though Sandoval and Hanley Ramirez quickly tanked after hot Aprils in 2015.
The fanbase can be patient with a guy learning a new position. And if the team was winning or if the offense was firing, fans could be patient with Story’s struggles at the plate, too.
But it appears patience is wearing thin, and Story is about to be tested in a way that could start to define him in the eyes of those filling the Fenway seats.