The Boston Red Sox and Houston Astros have expressed interest in free agent shortstop Trevor Story, reports MLB Network’s Jon Heyman in his latest insider piece for Audacy’s “Big Time Baseball” podcast. Heyman reiterates that he’s also heard Seattle convey interest in the shortstop, as MLBTR covered prior to the lockout last week. As is the case with all player-team connections made in the lockout age, no talks can take place between either party until the lockout is lifted.

Interestingly, Boston was recently cited as a team who reached out to free agent shortstop Carlos Correa’s camp. The path to that connection being anything more than due diligence lies in moving All-Star Xander Bogaerts off the position, an option neither the player nor Boston front office have indicated is on the table. The takeaway from a potential Correa pursuit is in many ways identical to a hypothetical Story one— sign an All-Star shortstop to guard against a Bogaerts departure, improving infield defense in the interim.

Just like Boagaerts, Story has yet to give a firm indication that he’ll be anything but a shortstop heading into the 2022 season.

It’s similar, though not identical, if you expand the OPS+ list to the past three seasons.

131 OPS+—Seager
130 OPS+—Semien
126 OPS+—Correa
114 OPS+—Story
113 OPS+—Báez

This time, the Statcast metrics rank it as: Seager, Correa, [big gap], Story, Semien and Báez.

Depending on how you want to view it, there’s either a Big Two here (Seager and Correa) or a Big Three (with Semien joining them), and then Story/Báez likely as the final two.

It’s worth noting, as well, that this aligns pretty well to strikeout rate, where Correa and Seager are better than average, Semien roughly average, Story a little worse than average and Báez’s 34% strikeout rate in 2021 one of the highest marks in the game.

Major League Baseball’s trade deadline passed at 4 p.m. ET on Friday, July 30 without the Colorado Rockies trading shortstop Trevor Story or right-handed starter Jon Gray, both impending free agents.  According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand, the Rockies will instead extend Story the qualifying offer at year’s end and collect draft-pick compensation assuming he signs with another club. Meanwhile, rumors have Gray wanting to work toward an extension to remain in Colorado.

It’s unclear what the Rockies were offered for Story and Gray by other teams, but clearly they didn’t find any of the proposals to their liking. That comes as a surprise, seeing as how most clubs in Colorado’s position—e.g. bad and rebuilding—would’ve gladly taken the best package as they looked toward the future.

Story, for his part, didn’t seem pleased with how things played out. “I’m confused and I don’t have really anything good to say about the situation and how it unfolded,” he told The Denver Post.