Welcome back to Week Two of our Patience or Panic series, where we take a look at three struggling players and provide recommendations on how you should react to their slow starts and subpar performance. Is it time to move on from these players already? We’ll try to make sense of the small sample sizes we have to work with this early in the season.
Trevor Story, SS, Boston Red Sox
Through 47 PA to begin the season, Trevor Story has frustrated his managers early on. He’s hitting .130 with one home run and has yet to steal a base this year. However, this is unlikely to be a season-long issue and more likely a slump for a streaky player. Story’s profile as a high K% and low BB% hitter makes him prone to extended slumps, because any poor batted-ball luck or increased K% rate over a small sample creates stretches like these where he struggles to get on base. To start 2026, Story has yet to walk and is striking out 40% of the time, much higher than his 28.2% career average.
Looking at just the balls Story has put in play offers more to believe in. The bat-to-ball skills are still there, but the swing decisions are an issue, which becomes evident when compared to last season.
Chasing more pitches outside of the zone and making less contact with pitches in the zone creates a lot of problems for any hitter. It’s a bad stretch early on, but expect a streaky hitter like Story to have hot and cold periods throughout the season. If it’s too much of a headache, it’s still wise to hold until a hot streak where you can sell high.
Verdict: Patience
Noelvi Marte, 3B/OF, Cincinnati Reds
There’s not a lot of data to look at for Noelvi Marte. With only 14 PA in the first 9 games of the season, Marte has less playing time than Will Benson and Dane Myers. It’s not exactly a strict platoon either, with 3 starts against LHP and 2 against RHP. It’s a shock for many managers who picked Marte around the 11th round in drafts this Spring, because he’s not only in a position battle for playing time, but he’s not playing his way into more opportunities.
Marte is 1-for-12 with 6 strikeouts and is continuing a decline that began towards the end of last season, where he hit just .184 in his last 24 games of 2025. The best piece of news is that Benson hasn’t done much better, hitting .238 to start the year. Should this continue into mid-April, Marte may even be at risk of being demoted to AAA, as both JJ Bleday and the Reds’ 5th-ranked prospect, Héctor Rodríguez, are available as replacements.
Unfortunately, barring injury, Marte is unlikely to get the playing time worthy of his draft stock. You can hold for another week or two to see if anything changes, but it’s time to start looking elsewhere and jumping at any decent opportunity that becomes available on the waiver wire.
Verdict: Panic
Caleb Durbin, 2B/3B, Boston Red Sox
Back to the Boston infield to check in on Caleb Durbin, who started his Boston career with a 0-for-18 road slump before getting his first hit at home on Friday. Managers should know not to expect much power from Durbin, but even though his projections range from just 8-10 expected HR this season, his combination of a high-contact rate and good speed made him a late-round option in deeper leagues. Let’s take a closer look at that skill set.
The strikeout rates really jump out, more than double last season’s excellent result. However, the walk rate is similar, and Durbin is making more solid contact so far than in 2025. This feels more like a young player on a new team trying too much to make an impact right away than a lasting trend. Durbin continues to play every day, and Fenway remains one of the best singles and doubles parks in the league.
Durbin isn’t a sure enough thing to stick out an extended slump like this for much longer, but there’s not enough evidence to believe he’s not the same player he was last year. If Luis García Jr. is available, it makes sense to jump at a similar offensive profile that is currently producing (.306 BA in 2026, 14 SB in 2025), but otherwise wait and see. As a bonus, Luisangel Acuña (.241 BA, 4 SB) is a speculative add available in most leagues that could cover the cold spell until Durbin gets back on track.
Verdict: Patience
Photos courtesy of Icon Sportswire | Adapted by Aaron Polcare (@abeardoesart on Bluesky and X)
