BOSTON — Trevor Story wanted to get a second opinion on his injured right hand. He didn’t get good news.
The Red Sox second baseman’s visit with a hand specialist on Friday revealed a small hairline fracture near his right wrist, manager Alex Cora said, which will require him to pause swinging for about 10 days.
Story has been out since the Red Sox’s July 12 loss to the Rays when he suffered a right hand contusion after getting hit by a pitch. He started taking swings last week but was still feeling discomfort when making contact on his swings, which made him want to seek another opinion on the injury.
“It’s not a surprise for us because it’s kind of like the same thing,” Cora said. “The doctor feels like we keep doing what we’re doing treatment wise. It’s just like we have to shut him down for 10 days or whatever it is and then we’ll see where we’re at. …
“It’s actually not the place that he got hit. The bruise is OK. He kept feeling uncomfortable with it swinging wise so that’s why he wanted a second opinion to see where we’re at. The doctor agrees with us as far as the treatment. It’s just like, we have to shut him down.”
Story will be able to do other baseball activities in the meantime, but there’s no exact timetable for his return until he can start swinging again.
“When he starts swinging or whatever, we’ll see how he feels and we’ll go from there,” Cora said. “The other stuff, running and all that stuff, he’ll keep doing. Just the swinging part of it that we were trying to get to where we wanted and he wanted to do the same thing. It wasn’t happening. Now we just have to shut him down.”
Story’s absence will continue to be missed both offensively and defensively, but the Red Sox got at least one reinforcement on Saturday to help offset the loss. Christian Arroyo returned after missing the last three weeks with a left groin strain, and he’ll likely see the bulk of playing time at second as Story recovers.
“It’s important. We trust (Arroyo),” Cora said. “It’s a matter of keeping him on the field. That’s the most important thing. He feels right, he ran the bases well down there in Double-A. We saw what he did in October last year when he didn’t play for a month and then he had to play the wild-card game and then he played all the playoff games and he did a good job. He’s a good defender. Obviously more comfortable in the infield than the outfield. His at-bats are good.
“Hopefully now that he’s going to play almost every day, he doesn’t try to do too much offensively. Just try to do your part and that’s all we need right now. A good quality at-bat where he hits in the lineup.”
