Red Sox weigh September shortstop options as Franklin Arias’s surge and a Story rehab loom

The Red Sox enter August with an increasingly practical question: who will be their shortstop in September. Nine days after a deadline-era discussion of September plans, the picture is “slightly clearer,” not settled. The most immediate everyday answer starts with Andruw Monasterio, who has been getting the starts and, at least over his recent sample, swinging the bat in a way that makes the role harder to ignore.

According to reporting carried by Tim Healey of the Boston Globe through a roundup published by Yahoo Sports, Monasterio has posted an OPS above.900 over the last 13 games, and he has done it while starting those games. Defensively, Monasterio is not portrayed as a transformative presence, but the offensive stability is the kind of baseline that can carry weight for a team deciding which players to trust as meaningful games begin to matter more.

Still, Boston’s longer view remains anchored in two other names. One is Franklin Arias, who the report describes as tearing it up in his introduction to AAA. The underlying idea is straightforward: if Arias keeps showing enough at-bats and adaptability at the highest minor-league level, Boston could be comfortable giving him a meaningful look, potentially sooner than fans might assume.

The other is Trevor Story, whose availability is being shaped by a rehab assignment. The Yahoo Sports roundup characterizes Story as “close to starting a rehab assignment,” which implies the next step in the recovery timeline could shift the internal hierarchy quickly. In a September roster conversation, “close” can be the difference between a temporary bridge and a return to a familiar profile.

It is in that uncertainty that the report includes an evaluation of Arias that goes beyond production. Chad Tracy, quoted in the story, pointed to both “physical gifts and tools” and the mental requirements of translating talent into big-league impact, specifically emphasizing the ability to respond when things are not going right. Tracy’s comments suggest the organization is watching more than the scoreboard, even as the early AAA output gives the club something tangible to measure.

The connection to the bullpen question in the Yahoo Sports title is telling, even if it is not fully expanded in the available text: as the Red Sox evaluate roles for September, decisions ripple across the roster. If a key position spot is still fluid, it changes how the staff plans to manage innings, bench depth, and late-season flexibility, especially around call-ups and return-from-injury timelines.

For now, the most supported approach is to treat Monasterio as the current baseline, Arias as the high-upside accelerator, and Story as the pending return that could reorder the depth chart. What to watch next is simple and schedule-adjacent: whether Monasterio’s recent OPS track holds over a larger set of games, whether Arias sustains his AAA production, and whether Story’s rehab process begins on the timeline suggested by the report. Until those pieces lock in, September at shortstop remains a moving target for Boston.