A new mock draft has the Boston Red Sox replacing Trevor Story with Gavin Kilen, a shortstop from the University of Tennessee.
Red Sox Predicted to Draft Trevor Story Replacement at Shortstop originally appeared on Athlon Sports.
The Trevor Story experiment has been a disappointing one for the Boston Red Sox.
At 46-45, there are plenty of reasons why 2025 has been underwhelming for the Red Sox. They have been playing a better brand lately, particularly Story, but his season stats of a .252 batting average, a .702 OPS, a 93 OPS+, and 14 home runs have left fans wanting more.
Story has stayed on the field, already surpassing his combined game total from 2023-24 (43 in 2023, 26 in 2024), and perhaps he has shed some of the injury-prone label. However, even with this relative bounce-back effort, Story is still 32 years old and feels unlikely to exercise his player opt-out option after the year.
He will make $25 million in 2026 and 2027 before Boston can exercise its club option.
In turn, Story is not going to play shortstop for the Red Sox forever. The draft is coming up, and Boston would be wise to plan ahead on the left side of the infield. Bleacher Report’s latest mock draft has the Red Sox selecting Gavin Kilen, a shortstop from the University of Tennessee.
After spending two seasons with the University of Louisville, Kilen took his talents to Knoxville. Funnily enough, Boston already chose Kilen in the 13th round of the 2022 Draft, but he chose to stay in school and develop his game.
Since 2023 for Louisville, Tennessee, and Falmouth of the Cape Cod League, Kilen has a .323 batting average, a .935 OPS, 24 home runs, 105 RBIs, and a 47:63 BB:K ratio.
Kilen has some of the better bat-to-ball skills in the draft, and should he turn into a viable Big Leaguer down the road, the Red Sox would have plenty of infield versatility with Marcelo Mayer and Kristian Campbell.
Related: Red Sox Trade Deadline Plans Revealed Due to Rafael Devers' News
Related: Red Sox Predicted to Land Star Pitcher at Trade Deadline
This story was originally reported by Athlon Sports on Jul 7, 2025, where it first appeared.
Category: Baseball
