Trevor Story Beginning to ‘Sense’ How Close Return To Red Sox Is

Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story continues to work his way back to Boston by completing another step in his rehab assignment.

The 30-year-old made his WooSox debut on Wednesday playing five innings in the infield and batting second in the lineup for Triple-A Worcester. According to Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s Tommy Cassell, Story feels he is getting closer to his big league return.

“It’s exciting. I can just sense my return to being with the Sox is close,” Story told Cassell. “It didn’t feel like that always. When you’re not playing, you’re going through the rehab stuff, the days are long and a lot of people helped me out along the way and without them, we couldn’t get to this point.

“So it’s still not done yet, we still have some work to do but I’m just trying to enjoy my time playing baseball again and get right back into the heat of this playoff race.”

Story began his rehab assignment playing three games with the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs last weekend, going 2-for-8 with a crushing home run. Story said he was thrilled to get back to playing ball after being on the shelf following offseason elbow surgery.

“Feeling good. Just excited to get back in the game flow of it all because it’s been 10 months since I’ve played a game so that was definitely exciting,” Story said. “So just embracing it and just treating this as a mini spring training, getting ready for the season and arm feels good, body feels good. So I feel happy.”

Red Sox manager Alex Cora provided an update on Story’s rehab assignments before Boston’s game against the Atlanta Braves on Wednesday. The skipper said Story would get some more at-bats checking in as designated hitter in Worcester’s Thursday night game with the Rochester Red Wings.

“Just being able to get back out here and play the game I love and in games that are competitive, you miss that when you’re not able to play,” Story said. “For me, I have a big appreciation for that (especially) when you can’t do it.”