"Elites are elites": Red Sox manager Alex Cora confident Trevor Story and Chris Sale can recapture old form

The large contracts the Boston Red Sox have given to second baseman Trevor Story and ace Chris Sale in recent years have paid only a minimal return on investment. Yet manager Alex Cora still has faith in both veterans.

Cora believes Story and Sale can help lift the Red Sox out of the American League East cellar following back-to-back last-place finishes in the division.

Trevor Story has batted .227/.287/.398 with 19 home runs in 137 games in the first two years of the six-year, $140-million contract he signed as a free agent before the start of the 2022 season. The 31-year-old shortstop has logged just 568 plate appearances while being hampered by a bruised right hand and a bruised right heel before undergoing elbow surgery that cost him a large chunk of last season.

The Red Sox signed Chris Sale to a five-year, $145-million extension on the last day of spring training in 2019 after the left-hander led Boston to a World Series championship the previous fall. The deal, which took effect in 2020 and ends this season, hasn’t turned out well.

Now 34, Sale has been injured much of the time and made just 31 starts over the last four seasons. He underwent Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery in 2020 and has also had injured list stints because of a stress fracture in his right ribcage, a broken pinky on his left hand and shoulder inflammation.

Alex Cora knows the Boston Red Sox need full and productive seasons from both Story and Sale after finishing with a 78-84 record last season. He is confident it can happen.

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Injuries have been Trevor Story’s story at Red Sox

Trevor Story broke into the major leagues with the Colorado Rockies in 2016 and spent his first six seasons with them before becoming a free agent. He was selected twice to the All-Star Game.

In a shortstop-heavy free agent class that included Corey Seager, Carlos Correa and Javier Baez, Story wound up signing with the Red Sox to play second base as they already had Xander Bogaerts at shortstop. Story had a decent season in his first year in Boston, though limited to 94 games, as he hit .238/.303/.434 with 16 home runs and 13 stolen bases.

Trevor Story was set to move back to shortstop for the start of last season after Xander Bogaerts left for the San Diego Padres in free agency. However, it was determined in January that Story needed elbow surgery, and he did not make his season debut until Aug. 8.

He played in 43 games and finished with a .203/.250/.316 slash, three homers and 10 steals.

“I gave him a mulligan last year because of the at-bats he missed, the elbow,” Alex Cora said. “We always talk about the throwing part. How about the swinging part? (The surgery) was on his top hand, so there were a lot of adjustments that he had to make. He wasn’t able to catch up with the fastball.”

Trevor Story and many of the Red Sox’s infielders will meet in his hometown of Irving, Texas, next month for informal workouts. Cora will observe and is keenly interested in watching Story.

“He hits the ball out of the ballpark. He can play elite defense, and he can run the bases,” Cora said. “It's just elites are elites. The decision-making is elite. When he's right, he can run into 30 (home runs). We know that. He's done it before.

“We were a lot better with Trevor at short. Hands down, he was the best defender in the league in that position. Expect him to have a great offseason. So far, it’s been good, and just go out there and impact the game the right way next season.”

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Chris Sale looks to stay healthy

Sale was also once one of the elites of the elite. He was selected to seven straight All-Star Games from 2012-18, five with the Chicago White Sox and two with the Red Sox.

However, he struggled to a 6-11 record and 4.40 ERA in 25 starts in 2019 before his elbow blew out. It has been an uphill battle for the lanky lefty ever since then.

A silver lining last season for the Red Sox, though, was Sale being able to make 20 starts, which was nine more than he had in the previous three seasons combined. Sale went 6-5 with a 4.30 ERA, but a lot of the damage came in four starts against the AL East champion Baltimore Orioles, who scored 20 runs in 17 innings.

Alex Cora believes it is reasonable to count on Chris Sale for more in 2024.

“The way he finished the season, it gives me hope that we’re going to be OK,” Cora said. “There were some good days and some grind days towards the end, but he wanted to post. He wanted to pitch.

“He kept saying it was to show the group that, ‘Hey, I'm part of this, I want to do it,’ but I think it was more for him. You know what, I can do it throwing 89-90 (mph). He finished strong and threw the ball extremely well.”

Sale is having an injury-free offseason to this point.

“He is in a good place,” Cora said. “Now, he’s in a position that physically he's right, mentally he's right. I think he's way ahead compared to the last three or four years.”

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New boss in Boston

Alex Cora is in a familiar place as he gets ready for his sixth season as the Red Sox’s manager -- missing 2020 while suspended by Major League Baseball for his part in the Houston Astros’ sign-stealing scandal.

However, there have been changes with the Red Sox in recent months. Craig Breslow takes over as the chief baseball officer following the late-season firing of Chaim Bloom.

Breslow becomes one of the few former major-league players to oversee a club’s baseball operations department. He was a left-handed reliever for 12 seasons between 2005 and 2017 and spent four years with the Red Sox from 2012-15, winning a World Series in 2013.

The Red Sox also have a new pitching coach in Andrew Bailey, who left the same position with the San Francisco Giants.

“I think one of the things that we probably are going to do differently is the pitching part of it, and that’s an area that throughout my years I want to keep growing, keep learning, and just to be around him listening to his ideas now with Andrew, and the philosophy is going to be a little bit different and the structure is going to be different, and I'm very eager to learn from them,” Cora said.

Alex Cora is entering the final year of his contract. After the Chicago Cubs signed manager Craig Counsell to a five-year, $40-million contract last month, it is easy to wonder what kind of deal Cora would command if he reached the open market.

Cora, though, is in no rush to resolve his contract situation.

“We’re going to talk with time, but I think right now, from my end, I’m not being selfish,” Cora said. “I think the most important thing right now is to make this team better.

“We’re in the process now of trying to acquire guys, and there’s talks about trades and all that stuff. So, let’s do that first. Whenever they want to talk about it, we’ll talk about it. We’ll see what happens.”