Trevor Story, Roman Anthony, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa are all starting rehab assignments this week. The Red Sox have a puzzle to solve.
This is the kind of problem you want to have. Three players coming back from the IL, a roster that’s been playing the best baseball in the American League (well, until last week), and a manager who has to figure out how to fit everybody. Honestly, this is the right time for these moves to be happening. With the team coming back down to earth after their magic month and change, I’m less worried about breaking up chemistry and more worried about finding stability to keep the Wild Card spot this squad has for the rest of the season.
Chad Tracy has some real decisions to make. Let’s walk through them.
The Less Simple Than It Looks One: Isiah Kiner-Falefa
The conventional wisdom says IKF comes back and Eli White or Anthony Seigler goes. Bench a speedy utility outfielder or a replacement level infielder, bring in a veteran utility infielder, call it done.
Except White isn’t just an outfielder anymore. He got some reps in the infield last week, and that changes the calculus. White brings elite speed—the kind that changes games in ways that don’t show up in traditional box scores, whether it’s late-inning defense, a stolen base, or covering ground in the outfield during a blowout you don’t want to burn real arms for. IKF is the more polished infield defender with more positional versatility on the dirt. White is faster and more dynamic. Seigler is the clubhouse firecracker, and sometimes getting rid of that affects a team more than you can expect.
The argument for keeping White over IKF is more legitimate than it might initially seem. And here’s the thing: if they do go that route—IKF gets released, White stays—Anthony Seigler becomes your utility infielder. Seigler can play second, short, wherever Tracy needs him. He’s hit enough this year to justify a roster spot on his own. The Seigler-as-utility-IF path is genuinely compelling. Don’t sleep on it.
The Complicated One: Trevor Story
Story is a legitimate major league shortstop. When he’s healthy and productive, he’s a switch-hitter with real pop and a strong glove at a premium position. He’s not coming back to ride the bench.
The question isn’t whether Story plays—it’s where Andruw Monasterio goes when he does.
Because Monasterio isn’t going away. He’s been one of the most consistent run producers in this lineup for two months—a doubles and RBI machine who has shown up in big spots repeatedly. You can’t sit him. But you also can’t leave him at shortstop, because Monasterio is a horrific defensive shortstop. That’s not debatable. Story is a significantly better defender at the position and deserves to have it back.
The natural resolution: Story to short, Monasterio to second base. His bat plays anywhere in the infield, and second base covers his defensive limitations better than short does. Then Seigler slides into the utility infielder role, giving Tracy a switch-hitting bat off the bench who’s proven he can do damage in this lineup.
The version of this that makes everybody uncomfortable: if Story comes back and isn’t fully himself at the plate after months away, Tracy has a real call to make about whether slotting him in at the expense of what Monasterio is currently doing is actually helping this team win. Story has earned some benefit of the doubt. But this team has earned its record too. Give Story his spot back, let him find his timing, and watch what happens.
Behind all of this, the Franklin Arias question looms. But that’s a piece for another time.
The Exciting One: Roman Anthony
Masataka Yoshida going to the IL with a hamstring strain is bad news—he’s been a steady offensive presence all season. But it accidentally cleared the path for the best prospect in baseball to get his first real look at a pennant race.
Anthony comes back from rehab, Micky Gaspar goes back to Worcester, and Anthony DHs while Yoshida is out. Simple. Clean. The service time question is gone now anyway. Put the kid in the lineup.
The harder question is what happens when Yoshida comes back off the IL in ten days, because that DH spot disappears and someone loses at-bats. Here’s where it gets interesting: Jarren Duran is not hitting. He’s been one of the team’s biggest offensive disappointments over the last month, and the numbers justify having a real conversation about his role. But Duran is still a legitimate major leaguer who needs reps to find his way—you don’t just bench him cold.
So Tracy has three realistic paths when Yoshida returns:
One: Yoshida DHs, Anthony moves to left field, Duran loses starts. Rafaela and Abreu stay where they are, the outfield becomes a rotation, and Duran works his way back through starts rather than sitting entirely.
Two: Duran stays in left, Anthony takes the DH at-bats, Yoshida sits more than he’d like. This is harder to sell to Yoshida but it keeps Anthony in the lineup every day without disrupting the outfield alignment.
Three: Duran in left, Yoshida as primary DH, and Anthony gets gradually folded in—DH days when Yoshida needs a breather, spot starts in the outfield when someone needs a day off. The ramp-up approach, designed to give Anthony major league at-bats without fully displacing anyone.
Duran’s struggles make all three versions of this defensible. Tracy will probably start with option three and let Anthony’s bat make the decision for him.
The Big Picture
When Yoshida comes back and Anthony’s path gets complicated, Tracy will have to make harder calls. But the answer to “do you want Roman Anthony in your lineup?” is almost certainly yes—and the sooner this team finds out what he can do at the major league level, the better.
This team went 21-4 in July. They won nine straight series. They’re coming back down to earth. They’re getting healthy at exactly the right time. The roster crunch isn’t a problem—it’s a symptom of how good this organization has gotten in a very short time. Figure out the lineup. Put the best nine on the field and let it ride.