{"id":261982,"date":"2025-11-04T22:15:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/261982\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T22:15:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T22:15:06","slug":"trevor-story-to-decline-opt-out-clause-will-remain-with-red-sox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/261982\/","title":{"rendered":"Trevor Story To Decline Opt-Out Clause, Will Remain With Red Sox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trevor Story<\/a> will not be exercising the opt-out clause in his contract with the Red Sox, MassLive.com\u2019s Chris Cotillo<\/a> reports.\u00a0 Story had the ability to leave after the fourth year of his six-year, $120MM deal, but he\u2019ll remain with the Sox and collect the remaining $55MM owed to him rather than test free agency this winter.<\/p>\n

The remaining salary breaks down as a $25MM salary in each of the 2026 and 2027 seasons, plus there is a $5MM buyout of a $25MM club option on Story\u2019s services for 2028.\u00a0 Story turns 33 in a couple of weeks and is coming off an okay but unspectacular 2025 campaign, so he has chosen to stick with the comfort and financial security of his current deal in Boston.<\/p>\n

The fact that this decision was even somewhat debatable for Story is a testament to his bounce-back year.\u00a0 The first three seasons of Story\u2019s contract were essentially a disaster, as injuries limited the shortstop to 163 games and he hit only .232\/.296\/.397 over 670 plate appearances.\u00a0 In 2025, however, Story was healthy and played in 157 games, batting .263\/.308\/.433 over 654 PA.\u00a0 Story launched 25 home runs and also set a new career high with 31 stolen bases (against just one caught-stealing).<\/p>\n

It was something of a comeback year within a comeback year, as Story had to overcome an ice-cold start before heating up considerably after the first two months of play.\u00a0 The result was an almost exactly average 101 wRC+, and Story also had the lowest walk rate (five percent) of his career.\u00a0 Story\u2019s glovework had remained a constant even throughout his injury-plagued days in Boston, yet this season his public defensive metrics plummeted to a -7 Defensive Runs Saved and -9 Outs Above Average.<\/p>\n

These less-favorable numbers were surely on the mind of Story and his representatives at Wasserman as they considered the opt-out decision.\u00a0 Even with a lack of premium shortstop talent available in free agency<\/a>, Story ultimately decided that testing the market wasn\u2019t worth the risk.\u00a0 Story also might have flashed back to his last time on the open market, when the lockout interrupted the 2021-22 offseason and kept Story from landing his Red Sox contract until more than halfway through March.<\/p>\n

With Story now officially back in the fold, the Sox have one big piece of their infield set for 2026.\u00a0 Alex Bregman<\/a> did exercise his opt-out clause<\/a>, so the third base position is a question mark for now unless Bregman re-signs or if the Red Sox install Marcelo Mayer<\/a> at the hot corner.\u00a0 The second base starter is also unclear and there has been rumors that Boston wants a first base upgrade over Triston Casas<\/a> (who is returning from a 2025 season almost entirely lost to injury).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Trevor Story will not be exercising the opt-out clause in his contract with the Red Sox, MassLive.com\u2019s Chris…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":261983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[49,48,82,13308],"class_list":{"0":"post-261982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-trevor-story"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=261982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/261982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/261983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=261982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=261982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=261982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}