When Trevor Story underwent shoulder surgery in mid-April, he looked ahead to 2025, believing 2024 was over for him.

Now, he’s looking forward to Monday, when he’ll be taking batting practice on the field with his Red Sox teammates for the first time since he left their eighth game of the season with a fractured glenoid.

And it’s looking more and more like Story’s season will have a second act after all.

“Where we’re at right now, I mean, I’m truly believing that he’s going to be part of this,” manager Alex Cora said Friday afternoon. There remains no set timetable, but he described batting practice as “a huge step” forward.

“I just don’t want to give you a timeline and all that, because I don’t want to put pressure on him,” Cora said, “But he’s putting pressure on us, you know, which is the great thing about this.”

“I’m feeling really good,” Story told the Herald. “Like AC, I feel really confident about it at this point, to where I’m swinging and I feel no hesitation.”

After several months of rehabilitation away from the team, it was time for the club’s training staff to take over, so Story met Red Sox in Los Angeles at the end of the All-Star break. He first mentioned the possibility of playing again this year before the first game with the Dodgers, but it was on the second leg of that road trip that his manager began to see it as a real possibility.

“(In) Colorado. He went to the office and we talked about it, and he feels really good,” Cora said. “He turned the corner and then after that, it’s been like, almost perfect. We know there’s going there’s going to be a setback at one point, right, and we’re going to slow it down, but so far so good.”

“He just saw me, saw the way I’m moving, the way I’m feeling confident taking ground-balls, and I think he saw me doing baseball activities and thought, ‘Okay!’” Story said. “Swinging came along soon after that, and I think that’s why we’re feeling really good about it.”

For a player who prides himself on being available – he signed with the Red Sox before the 2022 season having played at least 142 games in each of his last four 162-game campaigns with the Colorado Rockies (and 59 of their 60 games in 2020) – it’s been a frustrating first three years in Boston. His 94 games that first Sox season were the lowest total of his career, falling just short of the 97 he played as a Rockies rookie in ’16. He needed elbow surgery in January ’23, pushing his season debut back to August. Then, after finally enjoying his first fully-healthy spring training with the club this year, his season came to a crashing halt in Game No. 8.

Having encountered so many obstacles over the last three years, Story is understandably trying to temper his excitement.

“We’ve just been grinding, kind of behind the scenes, trying not to get too far ahead of ourselves and just really take each day, each week, as it comes, and I think in doing that, we’ve made a lot of progress,” he said. “Going through last year and then this year, you learn how to stay level-headed about it. Just because I know how bad it was early on in this recovery. But I think as bad as it has been, that’s how good it’s been lately.”

How far has Story come, really? If baseball had a ‘Designated Fielder’ position, he might already be back out there. “He can play nine tomorrow defensively,” Cora said.

Hearing that, the shortstop smiled. “Yeah,” he agreed. “I train, I take really good care of my body, over the course of my career, so yeah especially at this point, it’s something that I’m not too worried about.”

Nor is he concerned by the ‘Injury Magnet’ label he’s received since he joined the Red Sox. Injuries are a dime-a-dozen in baseball and occur in far more ridiculous ways than diving to rob Mike Trout of a hit. (And Story hung on to complete the out, no less.) In 2019, then-Rays pitcher Blake Snell decided to move a decorative stand in his bathroom and landed on the 10-day injured list when a piece of the 80-pound granite object fell on his right foot and broke his toe. The year before, Royals catcher Salvador Perez tried to carry a suitcase upstairs and tore his MCL right before Opening Day; later that season, Cubs pitcher Brandon Morrow went on the IL with back spasms after having trouble taking off a pair of pants. Earlier this summer, Wilyer Abreu sprained his ankle coming down the dugout steps.

“I know who I am, and I know the player that I’ve been for most of my career, and I know that’s going to show in Boston, it’s just a matter of time,” Story said. “That’s the way I play. I play hard, I dive, full intensity, and sometimes stuff like that happens.”

On Monday, he finally gets to bring that intensity to home plate again.

“Obviously, the game is a little different (than batting practice),” he acknowledged, “But where I’m at now, it’s feeling really, really realistic that I’m gonna come back.

“I came here to play in the playoffs and win championships. My body feels good, my mind feels good, I’m in a good position to come back and make that happen.”