The Boston Red Sox just received some crushing injury news.
When they failed to extend Xander Bogaerts, they at least had Trevor Story, signed last year, to occupy shortstop and help fans ease the burden of losing their star.
Now, however, they just lost Story for a considerable period of time.
“Trevor Story underwent UCL surgery with an internal brace on his right elbow — in other words, modified Tommy John surgery with a quicker return date. Generally speaking, players miss four to six months following the surgery,” MLB insider Jeff Passan tweeted.
Trevor Story underwent UCL surgery with an internal brace on his right elbow — in other words, modified Tommy John surgery with a quicker return date.
Generally speaking, players miss four to six months following the surgery.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) January 10, 2023
The Red Sox had both Story and Bogaerts in 2022.
Now, they have neither, at least for the first couple of months of the season.
One has to think that this is a relatively recent injury that somehow happened during the offseason, because if it was an issue from last year, it doesn’t make any sense whatsoever to wait until mid-January to have surgery.
With all the major free agent shortstops gone, it’s not clear how the Red Sox will manage to bring in a quality replacement for the talented shortstop.
They failed to sign Bogaerts, Trea Turner, Dansby Swanson, or Carlos Correa.
Now, unless they get creative with a trade, they will be down one of their most important hitters for a few months,
Story didn’t quite have his best year in 2022, hitting .238 with 53 runs, 16 homers, 66 RBI, 13 steals and a .737 OPS.
Still, he had major bounce-back potential now that he has a year of experience playing in Boston.
Fans hope he can return closer to his best-case scenario, around May or June, but he will have to clear several hurdles before even thinking about a return.
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