The $140M Basher Behind The Red Sox’s Hot Streak

After an ice-cold start to the season, the Red Sox’s offense has finally caught fire — led by their prized offseason acquisition.

With Tuesday’s 16-3 blowout of the White Sox, Boston is 10-3 and has scored 95 runs over the last 13 games — compared to 95 over the first 29 games (10-19).

Nobody symbolizes the turnaround better than 2B Trevor Story, whose recent production is justifying the six-year, $140 million deal that brought him to Boston last offseason.

• Story waited until May 11 to hit his first homer in a Red Sox uniform — but has racked up six HR and 17 RBI in his last five games.
• The 29-year-old was the third player in MLB history to follow a three-HR game with a grand slam in the next one on May 19 and 20.
• Story’s $20M salary is tied with SS Xander Bogaerts’ and SP Chris Sale’s as the highest this season on a team with the league’s sixth-highest payroll ($200.9M).

Story’s early returns are more promising than comparable signings from the offseason’s red-hot middle-infielder market.

His 33 RBI are sixth in the majors, well ahead of Corey Seager (19), Carlos Correa (15), Javier Baez (12), and Marcus Semien (9) — who all signed contracts with higher or equal AAVs.

And Story could be Boston’s most valuable infielder for the foreseeable future — Bogaerts can opt out of his contract next offseason and hasn’t inked an extension.