“It’s something I have envisioned and it just happened that for the first time in years, what you might see early is what you’re probably going to see on Opening Day,” said Cora.
Get Starting Point
Story’s placement in the second slot is particularly noteworthy. Last year, Story was an aggressive swinger who emerged as the Red Sox’ foremost run producer, mostly from the Nos. 4 and 5 spots. He led the team with 25 homers and 96 RBI, but with a .308 on-base — short of the .334 OBP featured across MLB in the No. 2 hole.
Cora pointed to Story’s finishing kick over the last four months — a .287/.331/.494 line with 19 homers and 22 steals over the final 103 games — as well as his combination of power and speed and left/right balance as the basis for his placement.
“What he did last year, the last [four] months, he was one of the best hitters in the big leagues,” said Cora. “He’s going to be surrounded by lefties, which, at one point [the other team is] probably going to bring a lefty for Roman and he’ll face a lefty and he can cash in.”
While Story got just 11 starts in the two-hole in 2025 (with 120 starts in the fourth through sixth spots), he has more games hitting second than any other lineup position, with star-level performances as a regular No. 2 hitter for the Rockies in 2019-20. He’s hoping to build off the 2025 campaign by returning to those career peaks.
“I felt like I reset the baseline a little bit with what I can do as a player offensively. I know there’s another level for me in there, just to build off those last four months,” said Story. “It gives me confidence. It gives me momentum. We rode that into the offseason and I’m excited to put a full season of that together.”
While Brayan Bello is working to incorporate a curveball into his mix this spring, his most pressing assignment is to re-establish the feel of his changeup. Throughout his professional career, Bello’s changeup was his best pitch — a lefty-neutralizing offering that yielded ground balls and swings-and-misses. But in 2025, he threw the pitch harder than he had in the past and it had less depth, ultimately missing fewer barrels.
“The 91-92 [-mile-per-hour] changeup last year was a bad sinker, and I think lefties took advantage of it,” said Cora.
What happened?
“Last year I was working on adding a cutter [and] a sweeper, so I lost the feeling for the changeup,” Bello said through a translator. “This year I have both of those pitches locked in, [and] I was able to work on the changeup [in the offseason].”
In his first Grapefruit League outing on Sunday, Bello threw a changeup with slightly less velocity, less spin, and more sink than what he typically featured in 2025. Though his line — 1⅓ innings four runs, four hits, one walk, two strikeouts — looked poor, it was made worse by some well-placed mis-hits. Bello, whose fastball was mostly 93-95 m.p.h., expressed satisfaction with his overall mix, including the changeup and a pair of curveballs he spun.
“I feel like it’s been a little bit of a challenge facing lefties in the previous years, and I feel that with these two pitches, I’m able to compete better against lefties,” said Bello, who has been tagged by lefties for a .269/.347/.434 line in his big league career.
News of Team USA’s men’s hockey victory over Canada in the gold-medal game filtered on the backfields in Fort Myers, with hitting coach Pete Fatse and Story raising their arms in triumph in the middle of batting practice . . . The Red Sox honored the late Mike Greenwell — a Fort Myers native who passed away in October at age 62 — prior to Sunday’s Grapefruit League home opener. Greenwell’s wife, sons, and grandchildren were recognized on the field, followed by a moment of silence. Greenwell’s former Red Sox teammates, Jim Rice and Dwight Evans, took part in the ceremonial first pitch.
Alex Speier can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him @alexspeier.
