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By Ben Watanabe
Contributing Sports Writer
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The initial returns for Trevor Story's comeback made for a nice story.
On the injured list for most of the season, Story returned to the lineup in the final weekend of August and did something he hasn't done for most of his Boston Red Sox career: He hit.
A 2-for-3 performance against the New York Yankees in his first game back was followed by a two-hit, three-RBI outing in which he delivered the walk-off winner over the Seattle Mariners. The hits have kept coming ever since, although less frequent. Entering Thursday's off day, Story had hit safely in nine of 10 games since returning from injury.
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Lying beneath was looks like a feel-good situation, though, is an uncomfortable undercurrent that will force the Red Sox to make a tough call sooner or later.
Looking at Story's back-of-the-baseball-card statistics, this might seem like a weird time to sound the alarm on the 33-year-old. In 10 post-IL games, he's batting .341 with five extra-base hits and four multi-hit games. In some of those games, the Red Sox literally don't win without his contributions.
All this recent small sample really does, though, is prove that nothing's changed with Story. And that's the problem.
Since coming off the IL, Story has not walked -- at all -- and he still doesn't know the strike zone or make the type of consistent contact that leads to repeatable results. He has a mountainous .483 BABIP, as he usually does when on a hot streak; the tale of Story's career is that when he produces, it's often because he gets lucky with the ball finding holes in the defense.
Furthermore, the lack of walks is a symptom of a greater problem: Despite being a 10-year MLB veteran, Story still doesn't produce quality plate appearances. For the season, when he falls behind in the count, he's batting .194 and has struck out 46 times. In those 103 plate appearances, he's walked zero times. Basically, the longer he's at the plate, the worse the results.
Story isn't alone in his offensive struggles on the left side of the Red Sox infield, of course. Caleb Durbin essentially hasn't hit at all outside of a three-week stretch in June and July, but his scrappy defense makes up for his cold bat. Story provides no such defensive advantages. At this point in his career, he might actually be a worse defender at shortstop than utility men Isiah Kiner-Falefa, Nick Sogard or Andruw Monasterio.
Interim manager Chad Tracy has garnered deserved praise for how he has guided the team since he replaced Alex Cora. He was unequivocal that Story would resume his place at short when he got healthy, and Tracy has proven true to his word. Story rewarded his skipper's confidence with some early highlights, and there may indeed be a few more highlights to come. But with the postseason mere weeks away, the Red Sox are more than just a plucky upstart. Now, they're playing for something. And no amount of loyalty or hoped-for highlights can disguise the fact that, for the good of the team, an adjustment needs to be made that neither Tracy nor Story is going to be happy about.
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