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Triston Casas

East Notes: Casas, Armstrong, Harris

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Triston Casas had a busy year in 2021, bouncing between Double-A, the Team USA Olympic squad and Triple-A. “I was bouncing all over the place,” Casas said to Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe. “I did my best to take it one day at a time and I’m happy with the way I handled it. But hopefully I’ll be a little more settled this year.” All of that bouncing around did nothing to slow Casas down, as the Red Sox first base prospect hit .279/.394/.484 for a wRC+ of 141 in 86 games, between Double-A and Triple-A. That showing has him on the cusp of making his major league debut, though he doesn’t yet have a spot on the roster. That means he’ll have the extra challenge of having to earn that roster spot before getting called up, but also comes with the positive of Casas not being locked out and thus eligible to participate in Spring Training. “I absolutely appreciate what they’re doing,” Casas said of the MLBPA’s efforts in the lockout. “I know they’re working diligently to make sure baseball is a fair game. I don’t know all the information, but they’re making a sacrifice to help younger players.” As for what comes next for the 22-year-old, “My goal is to make the major league team.” The Sox currently project to have Bobby Dalbec at first base and J.D. Martinez in the DH slot most of the time. However, Martinez is a free agent after 2022, meaning that, even if Casas struggles to force his way into the lineup this year, his chances of doing so will be much greater one year from now.

Elsewhere in the East…

  • Though Shawn Armstrong is a minor league free agent, the rules specifying which players are locked out have kept the right-hander on the open market and unable to sign even a minor league deal, according to The Tampa Bay Times’ Marc Topkin.  It’s a tough blow for the 31-year-old, especially since Armstrong said he heard from over 20 teams in November prior to the lockout, with the Rays (Armstrong’s former club) and roughly a dozen other teams offering minor league or split contracts.  Armstrong opted to wait for a guaranteed offer, but now finds himself stuck waiting to determine the next step in his career.  “I know, it’s going to be very, very quick when the lockout ends versus being able to talk and communicate and counteroffer and those types of things,” Armstrong said. “But it is what it is.  Nothing I can do about it.  Just got to stay ready.”
  • Braves outfield prospect Michael Harris II had a solid year in 2021, playing 101 High-A games and hitting .294/.362/.436, wRC+ of 114. But he might just be scratching the surface of what he’s capable of, at least according to fellow Braves prospect Braden Shewmake. “I think (Harris) could help (the big club). I definitely do,” Shewmake tells Justin Toscano of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “When he gets his chance, I think he’s going to stick. I don’t think he’s going to be a guy that bounces back and forth.” Despite his promise, Harris is aware that he still has to make strides, telling Toscano that “There’s always somewhere to improve, so I don’t really focus on one specific area.” Harris doesn’t yet have a roster spot, meaning other outfielders like Drew Waters and Cristian Pache have a clearer path to playing time than he does. But unlike them, Harris has the advantage of not being locked out, and thus able to participate in team activities and access team facilities.

Who’s Blocking Triston Casas?

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In the 2018 MLB draft, the Red Sox used their first round pick, 26th overall, to select infielder Triston Casas out of American Heritage High School in Plantation, Florida. Only 18 years old at the time, Casas was put to work straight away, playing two rookie ball games before thumb surgery forced him to miss the remainder of the year.

In 2019, Casas was sent to A-ball and crushed 19 home runs in 118 games. His overall line was .254/.349/.472, with his 11.8% walk rate helping to create that separation between his batting average and on-base percentage, as well as a wRC+ of 136. His 23.5% strikeout rate could be considered a tad high, but not alarming. He was rewarded for that fine performance with two games at High-A to finish the year.

The pandemic wiped out the minors entirely in 2020, but Casas was added to Boston’s 60-man player pool that year. He might have shown something impressive at the alternate training site, as he was promoted to Double-A to start 2021. In 77 games there, he hit 13 home runs and slashed .284/.395/.484, wRC+ of 142. His walk rate climbed to 14.9% and strikeout rate fell to 19.1%. He also left for a while to represent the United States in the Olympics, helping the team win a silver medal. After a promotion to Triple-A, he got into nine games and hit .242/.381/.485, with even strikeout and walk rates of 19%. He was then sent to the Arizona Fall League, where he continued his excellent year, hitting .372/.495/.487 in 21 games, with a walk rate of 17.5% and strikeout rate of 18.6%. He’s now considered one of the best prospects in baseball, ranked #19 by Baseball America, #18 by MLB Pipeline and #17 by FanGraphs.

Casas just turned 22 and isn’t on the 40-man roster yet, but if he continues this sort of production into 2022, he should be up in Boston before long. Defensively, Casas played exclusively at first base last year. He did play some third base in 2019, but in just eight of his 118 A-ball games. That lack of versatility will narrow his path onto the big league roster.

The Red Sox currently have Bobby Dalbec as their first baseman, as he got the majority of playing time there in 2021. It’s tough to know what to make of him at this point, due to his inconsistency. He had a great debut in 2020, playing 23 games in the pandemic-shortened campaign and hitting .263/.359/.600, wRC+ of 152. In 2021, he had a rough first half but seemingly righted the ship as the season went along. From the start of the season through July, he was hitting just .216/260/.399. But for the remainder of the year, he hit .288/.369/.683. He then slumped in the postseason, going hitless and striking out five times in 12 at-bats. He’s seen some limited action at third base, but the Sox should have Rafael Devers slotted in there most of the time. It’s a small sample, but none of DRS, UZR or OAA looked favorably at Dalbec’s work at the hot corner.

Although he’s capable of playing the field at times, J.D. Martinez is likely to see significant time in the designated hitter slot. In 2021, he played 148 games but only made it onto the grass for 38 of them. However, he’s in the final year of his contract with the club, making this a short-term issue. In the long-term, it’s possible that the Sox could utilize both Dalbec and Casas, alternating them between first base and DH, assuming they both hit well enough.

The long-term picture also has to factor in Rafael Devers, however. His defensive numbers at third base are poor and many have speculated that he will have to move to first base eventually. (In 2021, his DRS was -13, UZR was -5.5 and OAA was -13.) He’s only under club control for two more seasons but has been considered an extension candidate for years.

One way to help with this shuffle would be platooning Dalbec and Casas, as Dalbec hits from the right side and Casas the left. Dalbec has a noticeable platoon split in his big league career so far, putting up a .281/.326/.576 line against lefties and a .218/.297/.466 against righties. Casas, between Double-A and Triple-A last year, hit lefties just .219/.289/.301 while mashing righties to the tune of .298/.424/.540.

There are many questions here that will likely need time to be answered. However it shakes out, Casas seems like he has the right combination of power and a batter’s eye to fit into the puzzle one way or another. The Red Sox had a potent offense in 2021 but have since subtracted Kyle Schwarber and Hunter Renfroe. Although they could certainly go after a big move after the lockout, Casas could also provide them with a boost from within.

USA Baseball Announces Olympic Qualifying Roster

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11:10AM: The full roster has been announced by USA Baseball (Twitter link).  Beyond the names already mentioned, the roster also includes Clayton Andrews, Jonathan Bowlan, Brandon Dickson, DJ Johnson, Trevor Lane, Matthew Liberatore, Drew Parrish, Marc Rzepczynski, James Sherfy, Simeon Woods Richardson, Tim Federowicz, Mark Kolozsvary, Nick Allen, Eddy Alvarez, Logan Forsythe, Luke Williams, Eric Filia, and Jon Jay.

9:54AM: The United States Olympic baseball team will have its full roster announced later today, though MLB Network’s Jon Heyman (Twitter link) reports that several well-known big league names will be part of Team USA.

Right-handers Homer Bailey, Edwin Jackson, and David Robertson will be part of the pitching mix, as will left-hander Anthony Gose.  Matt Kemp, Matt Wieters, and Todd Frazier are some of the veteran position players.  Bailey, Kemp, and Wieters all played in the majors as recently as 2020 and didn’t sign with a new team this past offseason, while Frazier appeared in 13 games for the Pirates just this season.  It was only back on May 13 that Frazier chose to become a free agent, after Pittsburgh designated him for assignment.

Beyond these experienced names, some notable youngsters will also be on the team, as Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe noted yesterday that Red Sox prospects Triston Casas and Jarren Duran are participating.  Rays right-handed pitching prospect Joe Ryan is also expected to be part of the team, according to Marc Topkin of the Tampa Bay Times.  Any player not on a current 40-man Major League roster was eligible for Team USA, though naturally a team would have to agree to allow its minor leaguers to play.

Mike Scioscia will manage Team USA, and the team will take to the field on May 31-June 5 during a qualifying tournament in Florida.  The Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico, Canada, Cuba, Colombia, and Venezuela are the other seven teams involved, and the winner of the tournament will automatically qualify for the Olympics.  The second- and third-place finishers will advance to a final qualifying tournament against Australia, Chinese Taipei, and the Netherlands on June 16-20 in Mexico, and the winner of that event will claim the sixth and final Olympic berth.

Japan, Mexico, Israel, and South Korea have already qualified for the baseball event at Olympic Games, which are scheduled to be held July 23-August 6 in Tokyo.  Originally set to take place in 2020, the Olympics were naturally postponed for a year due to the pandemic, and the Games are still slated to get underway in July despite a worsening COVID-19 situation in Japan.

Red Sox To Reportedly Add Triston Casas To Player Pool

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The Red Sox are set to add first base prospect Triston Casas to their 60-man player pool, Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com reports. He’ll head to their alternate site. As Cotillo notes, Boston’s pool is at capacity, so it’ll have to make a corresponding move once Casas is officially part of it.

Now 20 years old, Casas became a member of the Red Sox when they drafted him 26th overall in 2018. Last season, his first full campaign in the minors, Casas held his own with a .256/.350/.480 line and 20 home runs between Single-A and High-A (all but seven of his 500 plate appearances came at Single-A). Once he joins Boston’s player pool, Casas will be eligible for a trade before the Aug. 31 deadline, but that’s a moot point here, as Cotillo writes that the team’s goal in calling him up is to aid in his development.

In other Red Sox moves Monday, they activated lefty reliever Josh Taylor from the injured list, optioned righty Chris Mazza and placed infielder Christian Arroyo on the IL, Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe tweets. Taylor, who was strong as a rookie in 2019 but hasn’t pitched this year because of a positive coronavirus test, should be a welcome addition for a struggling club with a deeply flawed pitching staff. As for Arroyo, whom the Red Sox claimed via waivers from the Indians on Aug. 13, his IL placement (retroactive to the 14th) was done to give him more time to join his new club as he goes through coronavirus protocols.

Red Sox, Mets Have Discussed Edwin Diaz

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As the Red Sox continue their search for bullpen help and the Mets continue to puzzle onlookers, the two teams have been in touch about a potential Edwin Diaz deal. ESPN’s Buster Olney tweeted early this morning that third base prospect Bobby Dalbec or corner infielder Triston Casas would likely be targeted as the centerpiece of any deal by the Mets. Mark Feinsand of MLB.com tweets that Boston has indeed discussed a possible Diaz swap with the Mets, though, adding that the Red Sox are likely to add at least one, if not two relievers in the coming days. SNY’s Andy Martino tweets that there’s “nothing hot” between the two sides at the moment, however.

It’s shaping up to be quite the deadline for the Mets, who shipped their two best pitching prospects to the Blue Jays yesterday in a trade that netted them Marcus Stroman. At the same time, the Mets appear poised to trade away some combination of Noah Syndergaard, Zack Wheeler, Jason Vargas, Todd Frazier and Diaz — the latter of whom was portrayed as a signature offseason acquisition in what proved a near-immediately regrettable trade with the Mariners.

Instead of anchoring the bullpen and reprising his role as one of the game’s premier relievers, Diaz has taken a step back in nearly every category this season. The 25-year-old has seen virtually every one of his rate stats — strikeout, walk, home-run, ground-ball, swinging-strike, hard-hit and opponent chase — trend in the wrong direction. His premium velocity has held strong, as he’s averaged 97.2 mph on his heater, but the across-the-board results for Diaz have been ugly. It doesn’t help him that the Mets’ defense is awful, but he’s sitting on a bloated 4.95 ERA and has already allowed more runs, hits and homers in 40 innings this season than he did in 72 1/3 frames last year. A 3.24 xFIP and 2.87 SIERA each portend better days, but it’s tough to understate what a disappointing season it’s been for Diaz so far.

All of that said, Diaz appears healthy and still possesses an elite arsenal of pitches. Paired with the fact that he’s not eligible for arbitration until this winter and can be controlled through the 2022 season, Diaz’s plus raw stuff surely gives other clubs confidence that he can be fixed (be it through pitch selection, a mechanical adjustment, improved defense behind him, etc.). The Boston bullpen has lacked established talent all season, and the relief corps has been particularly problematic this summer.

As for the Mets, they seemingly hope to structure their 2020 rotation around 2018 Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom and Stroman — a fine one-two combination, to be sure — and believe they’ll get more in trading away others than they surrendered to acquire Stroman. While they can’t unscramble the egg, so to speak, and recoup the value they lost in dealing Jarred Kelenic, Justin Dunn and Gerson Bautista to the Mariners (while taking on half the remaining money on Robinson Cano’s deal), the apparently forthcoming slate of trades should indeed replenish their farm to an extent. Syndergaard has more trade value than Stroman did, and Diaz should fetch some quality young talent if he is indeed shipped off.

Nonetheless, it’d be a dizzying sequence of moves that wouldn’t clearly leave the Mets better off than they started. While it’s commendable, on the one hand, that the team continues to eye contention in the short-term rather than acquiesce to the growing trend of large-scale rebuilds, the tightrope act the Mets look to be attempting is rife with risk. Perhaps moving Diaz and Syndergaard can each net a near-MLB-ready asset or two, but it’s not at all clear that they’d be in a better position with Stroman and those theoretical young assets. Stroman himself isn’t a particularly controllable player, after all, as he’ll be a free agent in the 2020-21 offseason. If things go south again next year, he’d likely be traded as a rental for less than the Mets paid to acquire him. And, in moving Diaz by Wednesday, they’d open a need for further late-inning bullpen help in the offseason — the very same need that led to this situation.

Red Sox First-Round Pick Triston Casas Out For Season Following Thumb Surgery

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Red Sox prospect Triston Casas, the team’s first-round pick in this year’s draft, will miss the remainder of the season after undergoing surgery to repair the ulnar collateral ligament in his right thumb, according to a team announcement. Casas, an 18-year-old third baseman, appeared in just two games for the Red Sox’ Rookie-level affiliate in the Gulf Coast League before incurring the injury.

Clearly, it’s a discouraging outcome for both the organization and for Casas, who forewent a college commitment to the University of Miami in order to sign with the Sox for a $2,552,800 bonus. Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston hears that there’s optimism that Casas will at least be able to participate in the instructional league this fall (Twitter link).

It’s been a rough year for Boston prospects on the whole. In addition to the Casas injury, the Sox lost top prospect Jay Groome to Tommy John surgery. The organization’s No. 2 prospect, Michael Chavis, was hit with an 80-game suspension in early April following a failed PED test and has not yet played a game in 2018.

Red Sox To Sign First-Rounder Triston Casas

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The Red Sox are set to sign first-round corner infielder Triston Casas to a $2,552,800 bonus, which is full slot value for his pick (26th overall), Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston reports. The deal is pending a physical.

The 18-year-old Casas, a high school star from Florida, was anywhere from the 20th- to 48th-best prospect in the draft, according to MLB.com, Baseball America, ESPN’s Keith Law and FanGraphs. MLB.com, the outlet with the highest opinion of Casas, noted entering the draft that the lefty-swinger’s “all about his bat and the power he can produce with it.” Casas packs a wallop when he puts the bat on the ball, though there are some questions about his ability to make contact. Defensively, while Casas currently plays third base and has an impressive arm, he’s likely headed for first, per MLB.com.

The fact that Casas will sign with the Red Sox means he won’t attend the University of Miami, where he had committed. Boston left quite an impression on him during a pre-draft visit, Drellich relays.

“It was a great experience going to Boston,” Casas said. “It was my first time in Boston and in Massachusetts, so I really enjoyed my time there, I really loved the city and I love the build of it and I love the way that Fenway fit right in the middle of it, just like another building. I’m really excited and I can’t be more happy with the way [the draft] turned out. I feel like the park suits my swing well, and hopefully I get up to the big-league club soon and make an impact.”

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