∗ The news that Trevor Story is headed to the IL with a sports hernia means that, in all likelihood, for the fourth time in his five seasons with the Red Sox , Story will play fewer than 100 games in a season.
Exactly how much time Story misses this summer will be tied to whether he requires surgery. If he has a procedure done, he’ll miss six to 10 weeks. But even without surgery, Story is bound to be out for nearly a month, and after that, there’s no predicting his durability or availability going forward for the rest of the season.
It’s been one thing after another for Story. His first year was a combination of wrist and heel issues, limiting him to 94 games. The following year, it was an internal brace procedure on his elbow. His third season was interrupted by a major shoulder injury. Story then played 157 games last year, his best with the Sox.
But now this. The six-year, $140 million contract he signed after the lockout ended in March of 2022 has been an albatross, and it’s not going to get better at any time soon. He’s under contract for $25 million in 2027, with a team option for 2028 that carries with it a $5 million buyout. The Sox will still owe him $30 million after this season.
It’s impossible to know how much the injury this year impacted him on the field. Surely, it limited his range in the field; whether it also contributed to his .547 OPS is uncertain. Either way, and regardless of when he comes back, this is yet another season of underperformance.
Story is beloved by his teammates for his leadership on and off the field. He’s played the game hard and right. But with this latest news casting a pall over the remainder of this year at minimum, it’s hard to see this story having a happy ending for him.
∗ The NFL schedule release circus may have jumped the shark this past week. Each day seemed to bring a trickle of information about this game or that — and a good deal of that turned out to be inaccurate.
The league has reached a point where its games are so anticipated that the entire sports world seems to spend a week on the edge of its seat in anticipation — not about opponents (that much has been known for months), but when.
And still, fans react in a Pavlovian manner because they’ve been conditioned to believe that knowing the specifics of a Week 9 matchup is somehow essential.
∗ The Celtics had better be careful. Sure, the mere suggestion that they might be in position to land Giannis Antetokounmpo might get the fan base lathered up, but breaking up the Jays — Brown and Tatum — shouldn’t be approached lightly.
An argument could be made that, following two straight postseason derailments, the roster could stand a major shakeup. A talented team should not be upset in the early rounds two years running. But in Brown and Tatum, they have two of the best dozen players in the game, and walking away from that is not without its risks.
∗ How can anyone be surprised about plans to increase the size of the NCAA basketball tournament? Just like leagues expanding and the NFL moving inexorably toward an 18th game, this was inevitable. There’s too much TV money on the table for these governing bodies to be satisfied with what they already have.
∗ Interim manager Chad Tracy has nicely stabilized things for the Red Sox and the team is, at minimum, playing .500 ball for him, which represents a modest improvement. But I wish Tracy would re-think his habit of sliding in random players — Mickey Gasper and Andruw Monasterio , most recently — into the No. 2 spot in the order.
∗ Somewhat lost in the offensive ineptitude the Red Sox seem to demonstrate on an almost nightly basis is the emergence of their two young lefty starters, Connelly Early and Payton Tolle .
The two have combined for a 2.76 ERA in 14 outings. No matter what else happens with the Sox this season, their emergence is a huge building block for their future. There’s 40 percent of your rotation, homegrown, for a number of years to come.
∗ At a time when the NFL is giving all indications that they’re going to opt-out of their current TV deal for more money, the league seems to be abandoning Sunday afternoons as a showcase for its games.
It used to be the vast majority of the league’s games were played in either the 1 p.m. or 4 p.m. window; now, the league is spreading out its inventory to three — and sometimes four — nights per week, plus holidays and holiday eves.
The result? The over-the-air networks like Fox and CBS are going to be paying more for less attractive matchups on Sunday afternoon.
∗ The new Rolling Stones single, “In the Stars,” is a strong one, but the accompanying video, in which band members are digitally de-aged, seems a little desperate. Embrace the old.
∗ Recommended reading: local author Tom Perrotta’s latest novel, Ghost Town , an examination of 1970s New Jersey suburbia.
∗ The idea that A) Mike Trout would approve a trade to the Red Sox and B) that the Los Angeles Angels would consider trading him in the first place couldn’t be more laughable. Trout chose to extend his deal when he could have made more money elsewhere and moved closer to his New Jersey roots precisely because he likes it in Anaheim. And owner Arte Moreno is famously intransigent and wouldn’t consider trading away Shohei Ohtani two months before free agency even though everyone knew Ohtani was never going to re-sign there.
∗ This column was on hiatus last weekend, but I can’t not mention the passing of John Sterling - a delightful soul whom I had the privilege to know a bit over the years. Sterling was a gentleman who loved baseball and loved life. He won me over for good when I learned that he referred to his work on air as “my act.”
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