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Trevor Story told Red Sox about his return ‘five minutes’ after playoff loss, Alex Cora says
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- Trevor Story told Red Sox about his return ‘five minutes’ after playoff loss, Alex Cora says
FORT MYERS, Fla. — Last fall, Trevor Story had until five days after the conclusion of the World Series to decide whether he was going to opt out of his contract or return to the Red Sox . To hear Alex Cora tell it, the shortstop didn’t take very long to make his call.
“He opted in and he decided to stay here,” Cora said Friday. “That was right away. We had that conversation five minutes after the last out in New York. He came to me, he came to the office like, ‘I’m in. I ain’t going nowhere.’”
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Story, who rebounded with a strong season and played in nearly as many games (160 including playoffs) as he had in three injury-plagued seasons (163 from 2022-24) at the start of his contract, could have hit free agency by opting out of the remaining two years and $55 million on his deal. By the time the Red Sox were bounced from the postseason with a shutout loss to the Yankees in Game 3 of the Wild Card Series on October 2, he had made up his mind. Thinking back to his postgame conversations with Cora and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow that night, Story said he made his stance pretty clear.
“It wasn’t ever like, ‘Hey dude, I’m coming back, I’m opting in,’” he said Friday. “We were just talking about next year, like ‘This is what we’re gonna do. This is what we’re excited about.’ We talked about the progress we made last year so it was more about talking about the future and I think there was just an understanding that this is where I want to be, and he knew that.
“I knew. You’ve kinda got to play the game a little bit or whatever, but obviously, I knew.”
Story never really considered testing the open market and his decision became public on November 4. With Bo Bichette shifting positions and Ha-Seong Kim being limited to a one-year deal after an injury-plagued 2025, Story could have entered free agency with the chance to set the market at his position. The 33-year-old never gave that much thought despite conversations with his agent, Wasserman’s Joel Wolfe.
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“There could have been a market out there where I get more money,” Story said. “It wasn’t about that for me. I felt like I came here for a reason. It’s the unfinished business side of it. The promise of our team, the young guys coming up and the additions that we made play even more into that.”
With Alex Bregman and Rob Refsnyder gone, Story is expected to be the unquestioned leader of the position player group in 2026 . It’s a title he plans to willingly accept.
“I’m just in love with this place, man,” he said. “We have a special group, it’s a great organization and I believe in the guys. I believe in the team we have and that’s really what it was about.”
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