Ever since he signed with the Red Sox on a six-year, $140 million deal in 2022, Trevor Story has gone back and forth between two lanes — hurt and bad. His 2022-24 seasons were all abbreviated, amounting to 163 games played; he's only sat out of two games this year, but he's batting .218 with a .581 OPS. Gone was the friendly air at Coors Field, and Story's performance has been in freefall ever since.
Story's contract is easily one of the biggest active busts in baseball, and it begs the (maybe slightly masochistic) question of who the Red Sox could've turned to during the 2021-22 offseason instead. That free agent class was stacked and full of better options, but here are three they probably (definitely) should've gone after instead.
3 other players Red Sox could've spent $140 million on instead of Trevor Story
SS Carlos Correa
Carlos Correa was the headlining shortstop of the 2021-22 offseason, and he ended up making less money from the Twins than Story did with the Red Sox (three years, $105.3 million). Although Correa tried free agency again the following year by opting out, failed physicals with both the Giants and Mets led him back to Minnesota with his tail between his legs, taking a six-year, $200 million deal, and the issue that led the Giants and Mets to rescind their deals (his ankle) never actually came back to bite the Twins.
He signed late into the 2021-22 offseason, barely two weeks before Opening Day, and the Red Sox could've scooped him up at the same bargain price that the Twins ended up paying. He dealt with some foot issues last season but still turned in 3.7 bWAR in just 86 games, while Story is sitting on 4.1 through his entire tenure in Boston so far. Correa is a dyed-in-the-wool shortstop, which may have created some drama with Xander Bogaerts as the Sox's Opening Day shortstop in 2022, but then they would've had an easy replacement for him after he left at the end of that season.
2B Marcus Semien
Marcus Semien went to the Rangers for more money than Story (seven years, $175 million), but Story's deal could've amounted to nearly the same amount if the Sox had tacked on another year. And Semien would've solved the Red Sox's second base problem, which has been a nagging issue for Boston ever since Dustin Pedroia's last full year of playing time in 2017.
Since signing with the Rangers, Semien has picked up two All-Star nods, a Gold Glove, two Silver Sluggers, and placed third in MVP voting in 2023, a year when he played in all 162 games, led the American League in hits and runs scored, and batted .292 with a .917 OPS in the World Series, when the Rangers won their franchise's first World Series. His performance has taken a worrisome nosedive this season, which has been a huge contribution to the Rangers' struggles, but he still would've been a lot easier to bet on than Story.
LHP Carlos Rodón
The Red Sox opened 2022 with just one lefty pitcher in the rotation, and that was Rich Hill, who rejoined the team for the seventh time on a one-year, $5 million deal. Michael Wacha was also added in the offseason on a one-year, $7 million contract, and actually ended up doing some good work in Boston before missing a month and some change later in the season. Chris Sale started the season on the IL (shock, surprise) and ended up pitching just 5 2/3 innings in 2022, and the lefty the Sox had to replace him was...Hill.
There was reason to worry about Carlos Rodón's health while he was a free agent, which is how the Giants got him on a two-year, $44 million deal that the Red Sox absolutely could've afforded and accommodated instead of bringing back Hill. This season, Rodón has looked like one of the most dominant pitchers in the American League for the Yankees, which makes this one even more painful.