Triston Casas is the next big thing

     

    It would be very easy to be negative on the Sox today, they went on a 11-2 stretch the best in baseball in July, they climbed into 4th place in the American League East, with distance on the New York Yankees. In typical Sox fashion in a critical series against the worst team in Baseball the Sox would lose the series. A very damaging turnout for the Boston Red Sox, while I could pile on, with how brutal this is for their upcoming schedule and how it can affect the wild card race, today I am here to write to you about Triston Casas, and exactly what I see from him and what he could be for this club. 

    Triston Casas was selected 26th overall by the Boston Red Sox in 2018, he spent his first two years with the Salem Red Sox, he bounced between Worcester and Portland during 2021 and 2022, until he was ready for the big leagues this year as the starting 1st baseman for the Boston Red Sox. At this point Casas's still largest flaw is decision making defensively. He has had bone headed plays where he forces a greedy out and has costed his team, along with some bone headed comments about his footwork and defensive prowess in the field, call me a Casas apologist but the kid is young. We were all young once the kid is 23 years old and if anyone is going to believe in you, you have to first believe in yourself. 

    The kid still has a few issues in forcing the issue and trying to be the hero at the plate, swinging aggressively trying to take the game over on his own. When I look at the progression of Casas what I see is balancing patience and aggressiveness. In March and April I was seeing him watch to many pitches, his confidence waws low and he was really trying to just draw walks. He would strike out looking to much, followed by in June he had a decent month he was much more aggressive early in the count swinging at good pitches. Resident downers Adam Jones, Christian Arcand, and Meghan Ottolini will tell you that it is simply the "Jackie Bradley Jr. argument" where he just had a good month and that is all. Well I tell them and I tell you, look at simply the progression. 

    In April his first month in the big leagues he was batting a buck thirty seven, in May he got it up to .257, June it was .286 and July .278, remember that Casas had been on the bench for a decent amount of games in July. Post All Star break Casas's slugging jumped up to .611 the kid when he gets in the groove becomes unstoppable. As soon as Casas catches fire he is a walking homerun, he had a stretch of 3 straight games with 3 homeruns, I know the deal between Casas and Cora is all about humility Casas will become highly aggressive at the plate and Cora wants to develop him into a consistent more reliable player rather than banking on him catching lightning in a bottle. 

    If he can live up to his potential Triston Casas becomes the perfect complimentary piece to Duran and Yoshida and Devers. That core has two guys that can get on base with ease, along with two power hitters that can be protection for each other in Devers and Casas. When Casas is and Duran are in there groove to go along with Yoshida and Devers who for the most part are always on the team becomes one of the greatest teams offensively along with when Sale and Houck come back this team becomes a dangerous wild card team in the MLB postseason.