It likely was a long offseason for Boston Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas.
His name was thrown around a lot in trade rumors, although the team obviously didn't trade him. There really isn't any reason to do so. He had a tough 2024 season that featured a really difficult rib cage injury. He's 25 years old and was one of the team's top prospects for a reason.
He has the potential to be at least a 30-plus home run guy. He crushed 24 long balls and drove in 65 runs as a rookie in 2023. Even last year he hit 13 home runs in 63 games, that's over a 30 home run pace in 162 games.
Casas is a building block who won't be a free agent until 2029. There's no reason to trade him or anything unless there was a clear upgrade. The only time it made any sense was when there were Vladimir Guerrero Jr. rumors. Guerrero isn't going anywhere and neither should Casas.
While this is the case, FanSided's Kevin Stephan made a hypothetical list of two players who could be gone before May and mentioned Casas.
"If his performance through the first ten games persists, Triston’s days on the team may be numbered. So far this season, Casas has six hits in 36 at-bats (.167 batting average) with one home run and two RBIs," Stephan said. "The only caveat to trading Casas is that the team doesn’t have another starting-caliber first baseman on the roster. Barring a Rafael Devers’ position switch from designated hitter to first base, the only other first baseman on the roster is last year’s depth piece, Romy Gonzalez.
"If the team decides to part ways with Casas, his value is less than it was in the offseason. That being said, the team could still dangle him for another starting pitcher, as the back-end of the rotation has been hit with the injury bug to start the season."
This is just speculation and isn't likely by any means. Hopefully, Casas breaks out and ends all of the trade chatter.
