Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story undergoes surgery, faces extended absence

Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story underwent successful sports hernia surgery Thursday afternoon, the club announced on Friday.

The procedure was performed by renowned core muscle specialist Dr. William Meyers at The Vincera Institute in Philadelphia. Story is expected to miss significant time as he begins his recovery.

While the Red Sox were in Atlanta last weekend, Story acknowledged surgery was a very real possibility and said the preliminary timeline he had been given projected an absence of roughly six to 10 weeks.

The veteran shortstop returned to the Northeast following Sunday’s game and sought a third opinion from Meyers, one of the leading experts in core muscle injuries. That consultation ultimately resulted in the decision to proceed with surgery.

Boston will now move forward without one of its veteran leaders for the foreseeable future as Story begins what he hopes will be a successful recovery and eventual return later this summer.

“I’m trying not to let my mind go there,” Story said last weekend when talking about the prospect of surgery. “It’s obviously different for each guy. But I think the basic prognosis is 6-10 weeks, give or take.

“We’re trying to get the best information, not make a rushed decision,” Story said. “Obviously, surgery is not ideal or wanted, so trying to navigate this thing as best we can with the information that we have.”

The timeline for Story’s return remains fluid, though the surgery is expected to sideline him until at least July and potentially into early August.

The veteran shortstop revealed last weekend that he had been dealing with the sports hernia since spring training, describing a nagging issue in which pain would surface in different areas around his core and groin.

Despite attempting to manage the discomfort throughout the opening weeks of the season, the condition gradually worsened and ultimately reached the point where surgery became the best option.

“(It has been) since spring, really,” he said. “A couple of weeks in, just felt it. Tried to grind through it and just got to the point where I might need to take a timeout and evaluate some things a little further. Obviously, I haven’t been able to really move like myself out there, so it kind of built up on me.

“After a few hard days in a row, it popped up and I just couldn’t kick it after that. It’s been a battle for the first month, month-and-a-half. I hang my hat on being able to play and being available, and obviously, now it’s probably a good time to re-evaluate that.”

With Story once again sidelined, the Red Sox are now faced with a decision that seemed inevitable the moment the veteran shortstop landed on the injured list: Is it finally time to move Marcelo Mayer back to shortstop?

The rookie infielder began taking ground balls at shortstop earlier this week in Kansas City as interim manager Chad Tracy prepared him for the possibility of a position change. The move had been discussed internally but was largely dependent on the severity of Story’s injury and the length of his absence.

“We have definitely kicked around that we know Marcelo has played short and he has done it his whole life,” Tracy said Saturday. “No. 1, it’s not something we’re going to do right now, and No. 2, we can’t just fire him over there if we’re gonna do that. He’d need to get some work. He has taken no ground balls anywhere but second.”

Since Story was placed on the injured list, Boston has relied primarily on utility options at shortstop. Andruw Monasterio has started four games at the position, while Isiah Kiner-Falefa has made two starts.

For now, the Red Sox will continue mixing and matching. Nick Sogard will start at shortstop Friday night when Boston opens a weekend series against the Twins at Fenway Park.

Still, Mayer remains the obvious long-term solution.

The former fourth-overall pick was drafted and developed as a shortstop, and the organization appears to be slowly preparing him for a potential return to his natural position if Story’s recovery timeline stretches deep into the summer.

Story’s injury is merely the latest chapter in what has become a frustrating and injury-plagued tenure in Boston.

Since signing a six-year, $140 million contract with the Red Sox during spring training in 2022, the veteran shortstop’s time in Boston has been defined far more by trips to the injured list than by consistent production on the field.

Offensively, Story has looked completely out of sync at the plate, hitting just .206 with three home runs, seven doubles, 19 RBI, eight walks, and 57 strikeouts while posting a .547 OPS in 41 games.

According to FanGraphs, Story’s 44.0 percent chase rate ranks as the fifth-worst among qualified major league hitters, while his 32.4 percent strikeout rate is the sixth-highest in baseball.

The struggles haven’t been limited to the batter’s box. Defensively, the two-time All-Star has also taken a step backward. Story ranks in just the 10th percentile in Outs Above Average and owns a minus-3 mark this season, a far cry from the impact defender the Red Sox envisioned when they signed him.

To his credit, Story has not attempted to use the sports hernia as a blanket excuse for his performance. However, he acknowledged before undergoing surgery that he had not felt physically like himself for much of the season and that the lingering discomfort had affected his ability to move freely on the field.

Story’s best season in Boston came in 2025, when he finally stayed healthy and played in 157 regular-season games, 160 total, including the postseason.

The veteran shortstop became just the second player in Red Sox history to record at least 25 home runs, 90 RBIs, and 30 stolen bases in a season, joining Jacoby Ellsbury, who accomplished the feat in 2011.

After enduring a miserable month of May, Story rebounded in a major way, hitting .289 with an .827 OPS from June 1 through the remainder of the season and helping propel Boston back to the postseason.

Defensively, however, his season was more difficult to fully evaluate. On one hand, Story clearly passed the eye test and brought a level of stability and athleticism to shortstop that the Red Sox had lacked for years. Story committed 19 errors and graded poorly in several defensive categories, including minus-7 Defensive Runs Saved.

“It’s frustrating, for sure,” Story said last weekend. “Definitely, I want to be there for the team. I owe that to my teammates to give everything I have. If I’m available, and I can produce, feel enough of myself, I feel like that’s a badge of honor that I wear. It just kind of got to the point where we’ve got to call timeout here.”

The Sox losing Story on the field is a big blow, despite his horrific start to the season. In a clubhouse that lacks many established veteran voices, Story has emerged as one of the Red Sox’ primary leaders and most respected veteran presences.

“You guys know what he means to our team, his leadership in the locker room,” Tracy said following Story’s injury. “He’s a big piece of the puzzle, so that part of it stinks. He’s meant a lot to me in my transition here, the way he’s accepted me and pushed other guys to do so. He’s a big piece of it. So, we’ll gather more info and see what ultimately happens with it.”