When the Boston Red Sox heard another team was heavily pursuing Trevor Story, that’s when they brought in the big guns.
Story’s market was fairly robust in free agency. He reportedly was getting offers of all different lengths and salaries, plus varying options of where in the middle infield he would play. Ultimately, he went with a six-year deal with the Boston Red Sox, where he'll play second base for at least the 2022 season.
The Red Sox’s crew of recruiters included not only some of their current players, but also past stars as well.
Past stars that were on vacation when called into action, too, as manager Alex Cora said on Audacy’s “Inside the Monster” podcast.
"Some people are making a bigger deal than what it was, actually, but (Dustin Pedroia) contacted Trevor for the recruiting process," Cora said. "He was actually in Turks and Caicos on vacation and he was like ‘Dude, I’ve got stuff to do.’ And I told him ‘Man, we need a second baseman, so you’ve got to help us.’
“It was very college-like, that recruiting process," Cora later said. "There was a team that we heard were being aggressive recruiting Trevor, and Chaim (Bloom) gave me the green light. It started with Kiké (Hernandez), he was the first guy to contact him, then Xander (Bogaerts). That was the big call. Xander called him and said ‘Hey man, I need you.’ Then Chris Sale, Nate Eovaldi, then there was a text by David (Ortiz) at one point there. But Pedey -- Trevor probably saw him play a lot being a middle infielder and a guy that rakes. I think at one point (Pedroia) said ‘Well, I can’t do your job.’ I was like ‘No, just help us out bro.’”
Obviously, Pedroia and the Red Sox' effort ended up working.
While Cora didn’t name the team that was going after Story, one has to think it was the San Francisco Giants given some public recruiting efforts by Joc Pederson. The Giants already have a quality shortstop in Brandon Crawford, but that clearly wasn’t a huge deterrent in Story’s process since Bogaerts presently mans short for Boston.
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