This isn’t how Vaughn Grissom envisioned his first season with the Red Sox going.

Acquired this past winter in exchange for Chris Sale, the 23-year-old infielder was expected to seize Boston’s starting second base job and establish himself as one of the organization’s top young players. Instead Grissom got hurt almost immediately and has suffered one setback after another ever since.

Now, Grissom is slowly building back up in hopes he can still make a difference down the stretch.

“It’s one of those things where you have to play it safe,” Grissom said of his rehab process. “It’s not as fun, it’s not the scenic route, but it is what it is.”

Grissom is currently on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain, an injury he suffered in part because he was trying to compensate for an earlier left hamstring strain. That injury cost him nearly all of spring training, and right before he was meant to be activated in late-April Grissom came down with the flu, which caused him to drop 14 pounds and delayed his activation by nearly a week.

Once he finally got on the field, he clearly wasn’t the same.

In 23 games before going back on the IL with his current hamstring strain, Grissom batted .148 with no home runs and three RBI. He only managed one extra-base hit in 87 plate appearances and was among the worst offensive performers in the league during that stretch.

“At first I felt like I was hitting the ball pretty well but I wasn’t getting any luck, and then you’re not getting any luck so you try to force things and your swing changes and you don’t even know it,” Grissom said. “Now you’re digging yourself into a hole and it’s like ‘ok now I’ve got to get out of that hole and get back to where you were,’ and then you’re not getting luck again, so it’s like a constant thing.”

The irony of Grissom’s situation is that Sale, who’d battled his own injury issues for nearly five straight years, is enjoying a career renaissance in Atlanta and recently earned his first All-Star nod since 2018. The good news is the Red Sox have exceeded expectations without either of them, and manager Alex Cora said they’re willing to be patient if that’s what it takes to get the best version of Grissom back on the field.

“He hasn’t been healthy the whole time,” Cora said. “So the most important thing for us right now is to get him as healthy as possible so he can become the player everyone envisioned.”

Since he went back on the IL in early June the club has taken care to make sure Grissom is fully healthy and built up before attempting to get him back in game action. That’s meant a lot of repetitive workouts and activities, but Wednesday Cora suggested they could start discussing a rehab assignment by week’s end, signaling a possible light at the end of the tunnel.

That would be welcome news for Grissom, who’s trying not to get his hopes up too much in order to guard against potential disappointment. Still, the second baseman is excited by the prospect of jumping into a playoff race, and after facing the biggest adversity of his young career so far, is confident he can come out the other side and make an impact for the Red Sox.

“I feel like everyone has a tough stretch and I think it’s just my tough stretch,” Grissom said. “The game always evens out, I haven’t had anything until this point so it’s good to get it out of the way.”