BOSTON – Twelve days after undergoing sports hernia surgery, Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story made his return to Fenway Park, where he walked around during batting practice and enjoyed being back with his teammates again.
“Just kind of moving around, a little bit of core stuff, just getting the glutes and the hips going again, just really, a lot of walking, kind of the normal stuff, so a lot of it is just really low intensity stuff, getting the body moving better,” Story said prior to Tuesday’s game against the Orioles.
It is too early for Story to know when he will play a game for the Red Sox again, but he plans on it being at some point during the team’s stretch run – one he hopes will be meaningful.
“It’s been different from every guy I’ve kind of talked to, some pitchers, some position players,” Story said. “It was good to get different accounts of that. Everyone’s different, but I've heard anywhere from eight weeks to 12 weeks on guys feeling really good, so it kind of lines up with what [my surgeon] says, and so we'll obviously take it day by day, and we'll get back out there when I feel like I can be the best version of myself.”
Eight weeks from Story’s surgery date would have him back just after the All-Star break (July 13-16). A 12-week timetable would be mid-August.
The important thing for Story is that when he does return, he can be the player people expect him to be, something he was simply unable to do on offense or defense in April and May.
Story played 41 games, producing a 0.1 bWAR, before acknowledging he wasn’t doing himself or the team any good.
“I felt like I gave it a real shot through two months of the season because it kind of popped up in spring, and it's a situation where it wasn't getting better,” Story said. “It just kept getting worse, kept getting worse, and I couldn't recover from it, and it was obviously affecting me on both sides of the ball.
“I knew I was gonna have to get it [repaired eventually], so you don't get a trophy for going out there and just dragging your right leg with you and playing. It was a situation where I felt like I needed to do it to be the best version of myself, and go out there and play the way I know how to.”
Story deliberated for four or five days on whether or not surgery was the best course of action.
“Yeah, because these injuries are tricky, you can kind of get different opinions, and so doing the research and talking to players that have had it, and talking to the docs, and what they see,” said Story. “Part of that was going to see [Dr. William] Meyers up in Philly, and have him assess me in person, and get new pictures. After that, it became pretty clear what we needed.”
With Story out of the mix for at least several weeks, Marcelo Mayer has been holding down shortstop. Despite the Red Sox entering Tuesday’s game with a 25-33 record, they were just three games back in the AL Wild Card standings, with only five American League teams sitting above the .500 mark.
“I've been in this rehab situation a couple times, so I've learned from that, and I know that your mindset matters more than anything, and just grateful for the opportunity to rehab it and come back this year, I think is the goal,” Story said. “I’m always looking forward to being at least enough of myself to be able to perform the way I want to and do the things I want on the field, so I’m excited for that.”