The Red Sox placed Trevor Story on the 10-day injured list with a left shoulder dislocation on Saturday evening.
Craig Breslow then clarified to reporters that the shortstop has a subluxation.
Story went in for an MRI at 4 p.m. Pacific Standard Time after suffering the injury in Friday night’s series opener. After laying out for an impressive catch, he turned over on the grass and remained on his back. The pain was evident in his expression and frustrated movements, as well as on the faces of his teammates on the field and in the dugout.
When the shortstop finally walked off the field with Alex Cora and trainer Brandon Henry, the arm was stiff at his side. He later told reporters that he’d felt the entire weight of his body land on the shoulder.
The Red Sox managed to pull off an 8-6 win, but the path forward won’t include Story for some time. “We’re still gathering the details but we thought it made sense at this point to put him on the IL,” the chief baseball officer explained. Story will see a doctor in Boston on Monday.
Some shoulder subluxations require season-ending surgery, as was the case for one of their top prospects, Miguel Bleis, in 2023; others, such as Jonathan Papelbon’s ’06 injury, simply require rehab. In 2018, Carson Smith sustained a right-shoulder subluxation in what Cora called a “freak accident”: throwing his glove in frustration after a rough outing.
It’s a heartbreaking turn of events for Story, who was enjoying his first truly healthy spring with the organization, and for the team, which was benefitting significantly from finally having his Gold Glove-caliber defense in a middle infield that cost them a stunning amount of games last year.
Before signing his six-year, $144 million contract during spring training ’22, Story had been one of the healthiest middle infielders in the game. After playing 97 games in his debut season in ’16, he racked up 648 contests between ’17-’21, or an average of 130 per season.
But over his first two years in Boston, he played in 137 of the team’s 324 games. A broken wrist (hit-by-pitch) and heel injury limited him to 94 in ’22, and internal brace surgery kept him on the sidelines from January to early August last year.
David Hamilton arrived in Anaheim from Triple-A Worcester earlier in the day, and will take Story’s place on the active roster.
