Spring training doesn’t officially start for another 4½ weeks, but that didn’t stop a group of Red Sox infielders from getting together this week to get some work in.
As promised late in the season, shortstop Trevor Story hosted a handful of young infielders for a group training session near his home in Dallas over the last few days. According to pictures released by the Red Sox, who dubbed the event “Story Camp,” Story was joined by first baseman Triston Casas, middle infielder David Hamilton, new trade acquisition (and Story’s expected double play partner) Vaughn Grissom and second base prospect Nick Yorke. The group worked out in the weight room, played basketball and football, took infield and swung in the cage during their time in Texas. They worked out on the field at Dallas Baptist University and even took in Tuesday’s Mavericks-Grizzlies game at American Airlines Center. (A full photo gallery from the team is here.)
Setting up a camp was important to Story, who benefited from a similar offseason event hosted by Troy Tulowitzki as a Rockies prospect before the 2014 season. Back then, Story — a supplemental (45th overall) draft pick who had just reached Double-A for the first time, traveled to Las Vegas to train with Tulowitzki, the five-time All-Star who manned shortstop for Colorado for 10 years.
“It was a real long day,” Story told MLB.com’s Thomas Harding in 2015. “We worked out two or three times, then we hit in the batting cage at 11 that night. On the ride home, he asked me if he thought anybody else in baseball did anything more than we did. I said, ‘I don’t think anybody did anything close to what we did today.’ He said that’s how you work to be the best.”
Now 31 with eight major league seasons under his belt, Story wanted to do something similar as he entered his third season with the Red Sox. By September, he was starting to put in place for an offseason camp in an effort to help out during the winter.
“Just a camp to get some of the guys together, some of the young kids,” Story said during a September interview at Globe Life Field. “Tulo did it for me and it helped me so much. I learned so much from him, how to work and go about an offseason. I still use a pretty similar template to this day. I want to do that to pay back the game and entrench myself in this organization even more.”
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Casas, who emerged as one of Boston’s best players in a strong first full major league season in 2023, has traveled all over this winter, going with team officials (and manager Alex Cora) for group meet-ups in Fort Myers, the Dominican Republic and now Dallas. Grissom, the team’s presumed starter at second base, quickly joined the plans after being traded from the Braves in exchange for Chris Sale at the end of December in an effort to build some chemistry with Story before camp opens in February. Hamilton and Yorke are two of many intriguing young prospects the Sox have in the middle infield positions; the best of the crop, Marcelo Mayer, reportedly skipped training with Story to continue his shoulder rehab in Fort Myers.
At the Winter Meetings, manager Alex Cora — who was planning on being in Dallas but didn’t end up attending — said he was excited to see what Story’s efforts would bring.
“He’s very structured with his workouts, with his team that helps him out,” Cora said. “It’s going to be a good opportunity for some kids to go there, work with him. Casas will be there too. Just trying to get everybody together in the same place.
“Sometimes the word culture is overused, in a sense… We just want everybody together in the same place and to work and keep getting better. We finished last the last two years, so we just have to improve a lot.”
Story, who struggled offensively but was one of the best defensive shortstops in his 43-game return from elbow injury at the end of last season, came away impressed with the young core of players who contributed to the Red Sox throughout the year.
“It’s cool to see these young guys come up and have success right away,” he said in September. “They work hard, they have a hunger for the game that reignites you every day. They bring a lot of energy. That’s great, man. That’s what good organizations have. We’re gonna need those guys going forward to be the team we want to be.”
