The Boston Red Sox have a Trevor Story-sized weight on their shoulders as they attempt to navigate the future with their oft-injured, $140 million shortstop.

Zachary D. Rymer of Bleacher Report called Story’s contract the biggest “nightmare” on the Red Sox’s current payroll, defining “nightmare” as a scenario in which “a given player has not only aged out of stardom come 2026, but is also still owed a ton of money both for that season and for subsequent years.” Yup, sounds about right.

In 2026, Story will be 33 years old and in year five of a six-year, $140 million contract that carries a team option in 2028. Given how Story’s first three seasons have gone in Boston, that contract figures to age poorly, to say the least.

Story was signed in 2022, coming off the Red Sox’s last playoff appearance, and his inability to stay healthy has been a major blow to the club defensively. A series of injuries have limited Story to just 163 games over three seasons with the Red Sox. In those games, he has been worth 20 outs above average at shortstop, but his offensive production doesn’t come close to matching that.

Story has slashed .232/.296/.397 during his time in Boston, a far cry from the .272/.340/.523 line he posted during his six seasons with the Colorado Rockies. Needless to say, the Red Sox had banked on getting more out of the player with the second-highest annual salary on their roster.

Bleacher Report’s ridiculous Trevor Story prediction is simply too good to be true

So, yes; Story’s contract is indeed a nightmare. While Rymer was correct in his assessment, though, he proceeded to make a prediction that sounds far too good to be true.

“It seems possible,” he said, “that Story won’t even be on the Red Sox anymore come 2026.”

Possible in fantasy land, perhaps. First of all, Story’s contract comes with a player option in 2026; with three years and $55 million available to him, there’s no way Story is opting out of that deal. Assuming that’s the case, Rymer still speculates Boston would try to move their offensively inept shortstop out of the way to make room for prospects like Marcelo Mayer or Kristian Kampbell.

But if Story’s offensive numbers don’t start trending upward – and fast – odds are that teams won’t want to touch his contract with a 10-foot pole. We respect the optimism, but we’re realists here; and reality tells us that the Red Sox are going to be stuck with an underperforming, nine-figure shortstop until 2028.