The Red Sox have been waiting long enough for this to stop being a conversation about survival and start being one about lineup quality. Trevor Story and Roman Anthony were expected to rejoin Boston on Sunday before the final game of the season series against the New York Yankees, and that matters because this is exactly the sort of game that exposes how much a team has been missing.
Boston has been scuffling offensively, which makes the timing of the return even more important. Story had been out since May 16 after suffering a sports hernia and eventually having surgery a week later. Anthony, meanwhile, had been out since May 4 after tearing a ligament in his right ring finger on a check swing and was placed on the injured list on May 7. Months later, the Red Sox are finally due to get both back at once.
That is not a small development. It is a correction.
On Saturday night, Chad Tracy said Story and Anthony were coming to New York, though roster decisions were still not confirmed. By Sunday morning, the Red Sox had already created room by optioning Anthony Seigler and Mickey Gasper to Triple-A Worcester. That is the practical part of the story, and it is what good clubs do when reinforcements are ready: they make room and stop pretending the injured list is still an excuse.
Why this return matters
This is not just about getting two names back on the team sheet. It is about restoring some credibility to a lineup that has looked short of answers for too long. Story had been out for 41 games, and Anthony had been sidelined for 30 games in the most recent stretch referenced here. When players like that disappear for months, the attack starts to look thin, predictable and too easy to manage.
There is also the wider context. The Red Sox entered the game at 74-62, with New York at 77-59, and Boston were still three games back. If those records hold and the two teams finish level, home-field advantage in the wild-card round could hang in the balance. That is why this Sunday game is more than a routine finale. It is a pressure point.
Chad Tracy was right to frame it as an opportunity. This kind of series, in Yankee Stadium, often comes down to whether a team can simply grab one. The Red Sox have at least given themselves a better chance by bringing back two injured regulars who were always supposed to matter.
Willson Contreras also underlined the obvious: getting those guys back is important, but it should not be treated like the whole story. The lineup has been working through the last three months without them, and those are tough decisions to make. Fair enough. But tough decisions are the price of chasing something bigger.
The Red Sox do not need sentimentality here. They need production. If Story and Anthony are fit enough to return on Sunday, then Boston finally has a chance to look less like a team patching holes and more like one preparing for the next round of the season. That may not guarantee anything against the Yankees. It does, at least, make the conversation a lot more serious.
