BOSTON — The worst fears about Trevor Story’s shoulder injury have come true for the Boston Red Sox.
Story has a fractured glenoid bone in his left shoulder and will undergo surgery that is expected to be season-ending, Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow said Tuesday. Story will travel to Los Angeles to see renowned orthopedist Dr. Neal El Attrache and have the procedure Friday.
Story hurt himself diving for a Mike Trout grounder in the fourth inning of Friday’s win over the Angels. He was placed on the 10-day injured list the next day after imaging revealed a dislocation. More tests revealed severe damage that will require surgery.
“After speaking with our medical staff further, confirmation on a second opinion and Trevor’s decision to go forward, we had talked about some concern over his bony structure,” Breslow said. “He’s got a fracture of the glenoid rim, so he’ll have surgery on Friday to fix that. What we’re looking at is probably somewhere in the neighborhood of six months. It’s difficult to speculate specifically beyond that, but you can do the math there.”
The Red Sox were counting on Story to be a defensive stalwart at shortstop and a right-handed force in the middle of the lineup. Instead, he’ll miss a massive chunk of yet another season due to injury.
“It’s very significant,” Breslow said. “I’m not going to hide from what he meant this team defensively. We had full confidence that offensively, he was going to contribute as well. We saw what he can do in spring training. I think fortunately, he has emerged as a leader of this team and there’s still going to be a way for him to positively impact it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like it’s going to be on the field.”
NICK PIVETTA was placed on the 15-day injured list with a right-elbow flexor straing just two hours before Tuesday’s home opener.
The move, which is retroactive to April 6, is a surprising and crushing blow for the Sox, who already lost Lucas Giolito for the season. For Pivetta, who will become a free agent in the offseason, the ramifications of a potentially serious elbow injury could be significant. Until now, he’d been one of the game’s most durable starters, pitching between 133-179 2/3 innings in five of his seven 162-game seasons.
Since arriving in Boston at the 2020 trade deadline, Pivetta has been the club’s healthiest starting pitcher. Between ’21-’23, he pitched in 102 regular-season games, including 79 starts, averaging 26 starts and 159 innings per year. In 2022, his 33 starts tied for the Major League lead.
The 31-year-old right-hander dominated in his first two starts of the season, striking out 13, walking one, and only giving up a solo home run in 11 innings of work.
To fill his spot on the active roster, the Sox have recalled Brennan Bernardino from Triple-A. The left-hander, who pitched 2 1/3 innings for Seattle in his brief ’22 debut, was a steadying force on Boston’s pitching staff last year, making 55 appearances, including six starts (as an opener) and eight games finished. Over 50 2/3 innings, he posted a 3.20 ERA with 58 strikeouts, 18 earned runs and 18 walks.
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