Trading Places: Should A Trevor Story-Marcelo Mayer Position Swap Be on the Red Sox's Radar?

If you were to ask a Boston Red Sox fan to give you a list of some of their top contributing factors to the team's massively underwhelming start to the season, it would be a safe bet that the play of Trevor Story would fall near the top of every single one. Now, if you asked those same people to pick which aspect of Story’s game has frustrated them the most, 99% of them would probably say his hitting, choosing to focus on things like his abysmal slash line (.208/.222/.338) or astonishingly below-league-average chase (47.2%), strikeout (2.5%), and walk (29.6%) rates.

While Story’s continued offensive woes definitely deserve being called out, something that hasn’t been discussed nearly enough and is arguably just as, if not more, concerning is the rapid decline of his defensive capabilities at shortstop. With Story, anyone who has followed him throughout his career knows his streakiness at the plate comes with the name. But even with those inconsistencies, one thing he’s always been able to hang his hat on is his fantastic and at-times elite ability to pick it at short, where he owns a .977 career fielding percentage.

For a team that prioritized defense and run prevention in the offseason, something that has become a bit of a running joke among the fanbase on social media now as they’ve continued to falter, the writing of Story’s decline was plastered all over the wall towards the end of last season. He ended the 2025 campaign tied for the American League lead in errors (19, alongside the Yankees’ Anthony Volpe), and third for the most errors in baseball, only behind Cincinnati’s Elly De La Cruz (26) and Washington’s C.J. Abrams (22). Of those 19, 11 were of the throwing variety, clearly indicating what should’ve been a concern for the Sox. 

The advanced analytics don’t paint much of a better picture either. His -7 Defensive Runs Saved put him at fifth-worst in the big leagues a season ago. His Rthrow, or Infield Throwing Runs Above Average — which takes into consideration the number of runs above or below average the player was worth based on how he completes the play given where the ball was fielded, how hard it was hit, and the speed of the runner (courtesy of Baseball Info Solutions) — was -5, which put him tied for third-worst among all qualified shortstops in 2025 (and second among AL shortstops). Likewise, his 36th-percentile arm strength and -9 Outs Above Average were among the worst figures among all shortstops.   

Transition back to this season . and Story’s numbers don’t appear to be improving, but actually getting worse. His four errors so far, three of which came in the first nine games of the season, places him behind only Rays third baseman Junior Caminero for the most in all of baseball. Not to mention his .935 Fielding Percentage is on pace to be a career low, his -2 OAA is only getting worse by the day, and his arm strength has slipped further to the 21st percentile. Story’s latest miscue, a ball in which he ranged up the middle, dove for, and tried to flip to second baseman Marcelo Mayer that resulted in his glove sailing further than the ball did in a 13-6 loss to the Twins, might not be a better example that it may be time to make a change in the Red Sox middle infield and flip both Story and Mayer.

A move to second base shouldn’t come as an unfamiliar feeling to Story, who already went through the transition once in a Red Sox uniform when he played 94 games there in 2022 in his first year with the club. Of course, those circumstances were a little different with Xander Bogaerts still on the roster at the time. That being said, Story still thrived in the role, putting together one of the best defensive campaigns he’s ever had. His .984 Fielding Percentage was the second-best of his career in any healthy season, only behind the 2019 season where he finished with a .987.. His +6 Defensive Runs Saved was good for eighth-best among all second basemen league wide. Add in his 10 OAA, good for the 96th percentile in the league, and again second best of his career only behind 2019 where he had 18 with Colorado, and to say Story’s short-lived stint at second was downright elite might be an understatement. 

As for Marcelo Mayer, who has looked smooth at both third (.985%, 2 OAA in 39 games) and second (.974%, 2 OAA in 23 games) so far in his young career, a move back to his natural position of shortstop could give Boston an obviously younger option with the potential of more range and better arm strength. Such a flip would serve as a much-needed attempt to not only improve their defense, but take a step in the direction of righting what has quickly become a sinking ship and could only get worse if the defense continues to falter.