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Boston Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story during a recent game as concerns mount over the veteran’s struggles and looming injured list stint.

The Boston Red Sox are set to place struggling shortstop Trevor Story on the injured list after a brutal stretch that deepened concerns about the veteran’s health and offensive production, according to a report by MassLive beat writers Christopher Smith and Chris Cotillo.

Story’s looming IL stint due to a reported groin issue comes at a brutal time for Boston, with the former All-Star battling a dismal slump at the plate while the Red Sox attempt to stay afloat in the increasingly crowded AL playoff race. Despite the team’s nightmarish 18-26 start, they remain just three games out of an AL Wild Card spot with 118 games remaining.

Story’s Groin Problems Date to Late April

Story’s groin issues first surfaced in a late-April game against the Baltimore Orioles, according to MassLive‘s Smith. The Red Sox managed to keep him in the lineup — Story went 2-for-3 with his third home run of the season against the Philadelphia Phillies just days ago — but the discomfort apparently reached a point where sitting him out was no longer optional.

The club is calling up infielder Nick Sogard from Triple-A Worcester to fill the active roster spot, as MLB Trade Rumors‘ Mark Polishuk reported Saturday morning.

The underlying numbers tell a more difficult story. Story is batting .206 with three home runs and a .547 OPS through 41 games this season, a steep drop from his 2025 campaign, when he hit .263 with 25 homers and a .741 OPS. His struggles leave him as one of Boston’s least productive hitters this year, ahead of only Isaiah Kiner-Falefa, Caleb Durbin, and Jarren Duran in the OPS column.

Story’s defensive value has also eroded. After logging nine outs above average, 19 errors, and third percentile in range among shortstops in 2025, he carried that troubling trend into the new season, committing three errors in his first 14 games before the injury intervened.

Will Marcelo Mayer Finally Move to Shortstop?

The louder question now is whether interim manager Chad Tracy will slide Marcelo Mayer from second base to his natural position while Story is out. Tracy took over April 25 after the Red Sox fired Alex Cora following a 10-17 start, and Boston has gone 8-9 under the new skipper, a modest stabilization that Story’s offensive struggles have complicated. The Red Sox selected Mayer fourth overall in the 2021 draft to be their shortstop of the future, the heir to Xander Bogaerts, and he has played the position for most of his professional life.

Boston opened the 2026 season with Mayer at second base to keep Story entrenched at short, but that arrangement has drawn mounting criticism. In a piece published in April, Bosox Injection writer Colin Keane noted Story’s declining athleticism and made the case that a straight swap between the two infielders makes both positional and developmental sense.

Story is signed through 2027, with a club option for 2028. That contract has complicated the question all spring. Some Red Sox insiders have speculated that Boston’s No. 2 overall prospect, 20-year-old shortstop prospect Franklin Arias, is actually the organization’s long-term answer at the position, which would leave Mayer at second indefinitely regardless of Story’s health.

For now, Sogard provides organizational depth while Tracy sorts out his infield. Whether Boston uses the 10-day window to audition Mayer at short or simply plugs Sogard in and holds the current alignment will signal something real about how the front office views this situation heading into the summer.