Trevor Story’s season took another small but familiar turn Tuesday night, when a single in the seventh inning nudged his average to.203 and his OPS to.528, even as the Red Sox fell 2-1 to the Philadelphia Phillies. He finished 1-for-3, but not before one of his first two at-bats ended with a double play and the other with a groundout after one pitch.
It has been that kind of start for Story in the 2026 season. He has struggled heavily in the early part of the year, and the numbers show how thin the margin has been: a.203 average and.528 OPS across 39 games. Under interim manager Chad Tracy, who took over three weeks ago, Story has mostly hit fifth, a spot that reflects both Boston’s need for production and its willingness to keep running him out there while he tries to find his timing.
Story’s problems are not new. He missed much of 2024 while rehabbing from shoulder surgery, then was behind the pace through 39 games last year at.244 with a.657 OPS before taking off late in the season. He finished with a.263 average, a.741 OPS and 25 home runs, which is why Boston is still betting on the same player to surface again. Story said it is hard to go through in the moment, but added that he has confidence he can do it because he has done it before. He called the slump very similar to last year and said it can turn on one game or one pitch. He also said he is not going to sit there and pout about it or feel sorry for himself.
The frustration, Story said, is that there is no simple answer to fix. He said if he knew exactly what it was, he would correct it right away, but that is not baseball. There is a lot that goes into it physically, mentally and effort-wise, he said, and he feels like he is trying to do too much in the moment. The pre-game work, he said, has been really good; the problem is that it has not carried over once the game starts.
That tension has been sharpened by events away from the plate as well. On Sunday, Story snapped a personal 20-game errorless streak with a fielding miscue that contributed to a Red Sox loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. The error that was initially ruled on the play has since been removed but is likely to be retroactively added after review. Through it all, Boston remains one of the best defensive teams in baseball overall, leading the league with 37 Defensive Runs Saved and ranking second with 15 Outs Above Average. Story, though, has not matched that standard at shortstop, with minus-2 Outs Above Average, zero Defensive Runs Saved and four errors this season.
That leaves Tracy with a familiar problem and little appetite for a dramatic fix. Before Tuesday’s game, he was asked whether there might be changes in the infield, and the answer mattered because Story is not just another bat in the lineup. He is a respected clubhouse voice, and Tracy said he has known him since their time together with the Colorado Rockies. Tracy also said that when he took the job three weeks ago, he had an aversion to major changes. For now, Boston is sticking with Story, hoping the next pitch does what the last several weeks have not.
