Here's kind of an unconventional idea: Would it make any sense to ship Story to Seattle?
Mariners' GM Jerry Dipoto
said in an interview yesterday that his “great preference” this offseason “would be to land a shortstop that would like to play second base," referring to one of the big four FA shortstops (Bogaerts, Turner, Swanson and Correa).
Story's contract is 5/$115. BTV says that's underwater, and maybe so. But he's arguably the best defensive 2B in the league, and I think that contract will look quite reasonable compared to the deals any of those big four get. Plus, Seattle was in on Story last offseason, so it seems unlikely they've soured on him after a tough year. (Story
reportedly chose Boston over Seattle because the latter asked him to move to third base.)
For that matter, I haven't soured much on Story either. I think he'll rebound nicely, and I love his defense at second. I'm not sure this is a good idea, but it would potentially free up money to reallocate elsewhere — including to Bogaerts, who no longer be blocked long-term at 2B. In the short-term, we'd seem to have a decent fallback option at second base in Arroyo, and then there's Yorke or maybe even Valdez in the pipeline.
I also don't know what I'd ask for from Seattle. I'm sure they'd love to swap Robbie Ray, but I'm not a big fan of him going forward. Maybe we could offer to take either their bad Evan White or Marco Gonzales contract off their hands and get something like Kyle Lewis, Dylan Moore and one of their nasty bullpen arms?
BOS gets: Evan White (3/$18M) or Marco Gonzales (2/$19M), Dylan Moore (FA '25), Kyle Lewis (FA '26), Diego Castillo (FA '25)
SEA gets: Story (5/$115), Dalbec (FA '27)
Moore could play anywhere, and could be our mostly full-time 2B or RF. Lewis could slot into our OF/DH situation if he's healthy. Castillo could slide into the closer mix with Schreiber and Houck. (Of the other guys, White is just ballast, or Gonzales may be useful as a long reliever.)
More importantly, we could more ably afford extensions for Devers and/or Bogaerts, if that's how we want to do it.