The Boston Red Sox have done well to hover around .500 this season despite numerous injuries to key players, including shortstop Trevor Story who is out for the season.
Story played just eight games for Boston in 2024 before suffering a fractured glenoid in his left shoulder which required season-ending surgery.
Recently speaking with Tom Caron and Alex Speier of the "310 to Left" podcast, Story spoke about the mental toll that this injury has taken on him this year.
"Those days were tough," Story said. "Those are some pretty dark days. I haven't really felt that type of emotion or that type of feeling really ever. [I've been] navigating through those and just really being vulnerable a little bit and talking about it and just embracing it. Obviously, I wasn't in a great mind space as we learned the news. That doesn't just go away overnight.
"It's been really good to work through those things, and like I said, embrace them because I feel like if you don't and just act like everything's all good and everything's roses then you're never going to process them. You just have to give it time to work through those things. I've felt really good about that. I think that's been something I've been able to do a little better removed from the team a little bit.
"There are still dark days, but I think my perspective of baseball means so much to me and my life and my family and it always has. When it's taken away, this is almost two years in a row where I haven't been able to play like I have for my whole life, you find a way and you find out some things about yourself and learn things about yourself that you learn to deal with, and you learn to get better in different areas. I think that's what I've been able to do."
Story has been dealing with injuries since he joined the Red Sox in 2022, as he's played in just 145 games over the three seasons with the club, and it can't be easy to not be able to do the thing you feel like you were put here to do.
It's great that Story's able to speak out about this issue, as he his words may be able to help some others who are struggling as well.
