Jarren Duran isn't going to heat up by sitting on the bench. If they just want to plug him at LF fulltime and sit Masa down most of the time, fine. They you have Durbin, Story and Mayer in the IF. I would move Story off of SS immediately as his defense is really bad. Story is either the 2b or competing for DH time. Durbin is the same hitter as last year and his defense has been good. Mayer is going to be a part of this ballclub for the next few years so you need to stick with him for a while.
The question is do you want Story or Masa in the lineup?
You don't have to blame him for their performance, but you can blame him for not wanting to further their development and seeing it more as "babysitting" than coaching. The job is to coach these players, not just set the lineups and make pitching changes.
They moved Raffy quickly. They moved Beni quickly. They moved Mookie quickly. They moved Bogey quickly. The best players don't hang around MiLB for a long time.
I think if Chad Tracy doesn't feel like Story's leadership skills are up to par, they should just DFA. This is a team that needs to move forward and Story isn't a part of the future. He won't be standing on the stage the next time they are holding a trophy.
I think Whitlock's comments were fine TBH. In print, you can read into them a little. If you watch them, they are fine. I think media painted his comments in a negative light and tried to combine them with Story's comments.
KC had an UGLY swing that could be exploited at a higher level. Arias is young and inexperienced. I wouldn't necessarily compare the two. If he's still hitting 1000 in June and gets sent to AAA, let's see what it looks like there for a bit.
At least we know Arias can play defense.
He's not getting called up in April. He's not getting called up in May. He's not getting called up in June. Just ignore his numbers for a few months and see what happens after they call him up to AAA.
Story's play combined with his comments deserve a benching. As a veteran in that clubhouse, he needs to lead the younger players and keep that stuff private. Last year, all we heard was "we're moving on" after Devers was traded. Story clearly didn't get that memo this time around. There is nothing about the Trevor Story experience that has impressed me since he's been here.
It's an incomplete roster. In order to get all 5 OFers into the game, somebody has to move positions. If Rafaela is hitting 100 wRC+ or better, he's not a negative at 2b. Also, his defense in CF hasn't been the same this season.
1. Bad start.
2. Misalignment between Ownership, Breslow and Cora.
3. Cora isn't good at developing young players and that is what this core needs.
4. FO wanted to let go a few of his coaches and Cora wouldn't do it as they were his boys.