For a Boston Red Sox club that now sits comfortably in the second AL wild-card spot, much of the attention has turned to the organization’s minor league affiliates, who are hosting several key players on rehab assignment.
One is young star Roman Anthony, who belted a home run and reached base in each of his four plate appearances for the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs on Tuesday. Anthony, who hadn’t played since May 4, continues his rehab on Thursday night as he looks to get comfortable against live pitching following his hand injury.
Over in Worcester, the Triple-A WooSox have two veteran infielders looking to return from injury: Trevor Story and Isiah Kiner-Falefa. Kiner-Falefa (arm) kicked off his rehab stint on Wednesday night, going 1-for-3 with a walk while playing second base.
Story joined him up the middle on Wednesday, going 2-for-4 with an RBI while starting at shortstop. The 33-year-old began his rehab on Sunday by playing four innings of shortstop and going 1-for-2 at the plate for Worcester.
The very next day, Story was confident about his progress and suggested he could be back up to Boston with the big club as soon as Friday. He then struggled in his next game on Tuesday night, going 0-for-3 with two strikeouts.
According to a report from MassLive’s Chris Cotillo, Story will be given at least another game or two to iron things out before returning to the Red Sox. Cotillo says that Story will be off on Thursday for a recovery day and will play again for the WooSox on Friday night. Kiner-Falefa will get reps at shortstop in his absence.
The decision to keep Story on rehab feels like a wise one, and one that seemed likely after seeing acting manager Chad Tracy’s reaction to the idea of him playing this weekend earlier in the week. While Story seemed eager to get back out there, Tracy said that they want to see how he reacts physically and how he performs at the plate before they “reassess” further than that.
Tracy did confirm that they are preparing to reintroduce Story at shortstop when the time comes for him to play, and he noted that he will get all his reps there during the minor league stint.
With Story now seemingly back to full health, the main question will be on how he is able to perform after three months away and how long it might take him to find his rhythm. Before the injury, the 11-year veteran was one of the team’s weakest links offensively, slashing .206/.244/.303 across 41 games.
It feels like the Red Sox are walking a fine line between rushing Story through a rehab like they did with Romy Gonzalez, and to a certain extent Adley Rutschman, and making sure that he has enough big league at bats over the next month to decide if he is the right option at shortstop for the postseason.
What is clear is that Story will at least be given the opportunity to win the everyday role back from Andruw Monasterio, who has impressed at the plate despite not being a natural shortstop. The issue and potentially tough decision will come if Story is handed the job and cannot produce, which remains a real possibility.
In that sense, his next game or handful of games for Worcester will be very important, as will the performance of Kiner-Falefa alongside him. The WooSox will play each of the next four days in Syracuse, finishing up the series on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. ET when the Red Sox will play their getaway day game before heading to Miami for a three-game set against the Marlins.
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