Injured Red Sox prospect Triston Casas started his hitting and fielding progression in Fort Myers on Monday and is ‘moving along well,’ according to the Boston Herald’s Steve Hewitt.
Casas sprained his right ankle on the basepaths at Polar Park on May 17 and has not appeared in a game since then. The 22-year-old first baseman was placed on Triple-A Worcester’s injured list on May 22 and has been rehabbing in Fort Myers since early June.
Initially, the Red Sox did not anticipate that Casas would be sidelined for too long. Due to the nature of his injury, however, the left-handed hitter could not swing a bat pain-free on account of the amount of stress he places on his landing foot.
It was only just recently that Casas was able to start swinging a bat again, Red Sox director of player development Brian Abraham tells The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier. MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith adds that the 6-foot-5, 250-pound slugger has begun hitting off a Tee.
Originally selected by the Red Sox with the 26th overall pick in the 2018 amateur draft out of American Heritage High School (Plantation, Fla.), Casas is currently regarded by Baseball America as the No. 2 prospect in Boston’s farm system and the No. 18 prospect in all of baseball.
In 36 games with the WooSox this season, Casas has batted .248/.359/.457 (115 wRC+) with nine doubles, six home runs, 22 RBIs, 22 runs scored, 23 walks, and 35 strikeouts across 156 trips to the plate.
As of this moment, there is no definitive timetable for when Casas could return to Worcester’s lineup. That said, the Pembroke Pines native will likely need to complete a brief rehab assignment in the Florida Complex League before he is cleared to suit up for the WooSox again.
When Casas initially suffered the injury, the Red Sox believed the 22-year-old first baseman would only be sidelined for a short period of time. They have since learned it is more serious than originally expected.
As a left-handed hitter, Casas shifts most of his weight onto his right foot when he swings. Because of this sprain, though, the 6-foot-4, 252 pounder has had trouble pushing off his ever-important right ankle.
“In the beginning, we thought it was something minor,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora told reporters (including MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith) on Sunday. “Around the bag, he twisted his ankle. We thought it was going to be day-to-day. But he wasn’t moving well. And as you know, he’s a big dude. He’s a big guy. And he hasn’t been able to actually push off of it. It’s not something that we’re worried about.”
Prior to getting hurt, Casas — Baseball America’s 19th-ranked prospect — was batting .248/.359/.457 (115 wRC+) with nine doubles, six home runs, 22 RBIs, 22 runs scored, 23 walks, and 25 strikeouts over 36 games (156 plate appearances) with the WooSox this season.
Coming into the year, it seemed like Casas was in line to make his major-league debut at some point in 2022 after spending an extended period of time in Worcester. In his tenure as Boston’s chief baseball officer, Chaim Bloom has stressed how important making adjustments in Triple-A is to a prospect’s development.
With this setback, though, Casas has missed out on important development time that could potentially impact his path to the big-leagues.
So that part, he’s missing at-bats and that’s the part that he’s actually disappointed in a sense,” said Cora. “But we expect him to keep moving forward, keep getting better
Given that he has not been able to push off his right ankle, Casas has yet to resume baseball activities but has begun running again, per Smith. That being said, there is still no timetable for when the Miami-area native could return to action.
“It’s just a matter of him being able to push off and move around,” Cora said. “When that happens, we’ll decide what we do. Right now, he’s just down there doing his rehab, moving around, but nothing yet as far as when he starts playing.”
(Picture of Triston Casas: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
As he continues to work his way back from a right ankle sprain, Red Sox top prospect Triston Casas is set to begin a rehab assignment in Fort Myers, Fla. on Friday, per The Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s Joe McDonald.
Casas, Boston’s second-ranked prospect according to Baseball America, initially tweaked his ankle in Triple-A Worcester’s 4-3 win over Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on May 17.
The 22-year-old first baseman has not appeared in a game for the WooSox since then and was placed on the 7-day injured list on May 22, but he was seen doing some work on the field at Polar Park on Thursday afternoon.
According to McDonald, Casas asked the team to have a second MRI of his ankle taken for precautionary reasons. Results of that MRI once again came back negative, revealing only some swelling as opposed to a fracture or tear.
Since he hits from the left side of the plate, Casas shifts most of his weight onto his right foot when he swings. As a result of this latest injury, Casas — as of Tuesday — had yet to swing a bat, according to The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier.
Prior to getting hurt, Casas was batting .248/.359/.457 with nine doubles, six home runs, 22 RBIs, 22 runs scored, 23 walks, and 35 strikeouts through his first 36 games (156 plate appearances) of the season with the WooSox.
Given that he is headed down to Fort Myers, it seems likely that Casas will get into some Florida Complex League games (season starts on Monday) before returning to Worcester’s lineup.
As noted by Speier, Casas hits from the left side of the plate, which means he “transfers most of his weight onto his right foot on his swing.” This is the primary reason why the first baseman has not been able hit in any capacity over the last two-plus weeks.
Originally selected by the Red Sox with the 26th overall pick in the 2018 draft out of American Heritage High School (Plantation, Fla.), Casas is currently regarded by Baseball America as the second-ranked prospect in Boston’s farm system.
Prior to injuring his ankle, the 22-year-old was batting .248/.359/.457 with nine doubles, six home runs, 22 RBIs, 22 runs scored, 23 walks, and 35 strikeouts through his first 36 games (156 plate appearances) of the season with the WooSox.
Given his standing as one of the top prospects in the organization, it is easy to see why the Red Sox are in no hurry to rush Casas back to action in Worcester. Speier reports that Casas is unlikely to return for the WooSox’ series against the Syracuse Mets this week. But perhaps things will change by this time next week when the WooSox are in Buffalo.
(Picture of Triston Casas: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The Triple-A Worcester Red Sox have placed first baseman Triston Casas and right-hander Connor Seabold on the 7-day injured list. Casas was placed on the IL because of a sprained right ankle while Seabold was placed on the IL because of a pectoral strain.
Since both Casas and Seabold’s stints on the injured list are retroactive to Sunday, the two will be eligible to return to action as soon as this weekend when the WooSox wrap up their series against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs in Allentown, Pa.
In 36 games with the WooSox this season, Casas is slashing .248/.359/.457 with nine doubles, six home runs, 22 RBIs, 22 runs scored, 23 walks, and 35 strikeouts across 156 trips to the plate. The left-handed hitter is currently regarded by Baseball America as the No. 2 prospect in Boston’s farm system behind only Marcelo Mayer.
On the 2022 campaign as a whole, Seabold has posted a 2.45 ERA and 2.89 FIP to go along with 37 strikeouts to 10 walk over seven starts (36 2/3 innings pitched) for Worcester. He has been shut down for the time being and will miss at least one more start while resting his injury, per Speier.
Seabold, who is on the Red Sox’ 40-man roster, is regarded by Baseball America as the No. 21 prospect in Boston’s farm system, which ranks 10th among pitchers in the organization. He made his major-league debut last September and, when healthy, is one of the club’s top depth starters alongside Kutter Crawford and Josh Winckowski.
(Picture of Triston Casas: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Red Sox top prospect Triston Casas was removed in the seventh inning of Triple-A Worcester’s 4-3 win over the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders at Polar Park on Tuesday night.
With two outs in the top of the seventh, Casas was visited at first base by WooSox manager Chad Tracy and trainer David Herrera before being lifted in favor of Roberto Ramos.
To that point in the contest, Casas had gone 1-for-2 with one walk and one strikeout. Following Worcester’s come-from-behind victory that snapped a 10-game losing streak, it was revealed why the 22-year-old had to come out of the game.
As reported by The Worcester Telegram & Gazette’s Joe McDonald, Casas tweaked his right ankle on the first base bag while recording the final out of the fifth. In the bottom half of the frame, he rolled that very same ankle as he attempted to get back to third base before getting doubled up.
“I played the next two innings and felt fine,” Casas explained. “They told me if I felt it at all, whether it was hurting a little bit, to let them know. The same motion I made injuring it, or hurting it, was the same motion I need to do to hit, so I was telling them to get (Roberto) Ramos to come into hit for me.”
Ramos did end up taking over for Casas at first base, but it does not appear as though the promising infielder sustained any sort of long-term injury that will require him to miss an extended period of time.
“It was just for precautionary reasons,” said Casas. “I feel good now. We’re going to see how I come in tomorrow, and we’ll take it slow. I feel good.”
Through 36 games with the WooSox this season, Casas is batting .248/.359/.457 with nine doubles, six home runs, 22 RBIs, 22 runs scored, 23 walks, and 35 strikeouts over 156 plate appearances.
The left-handed hitting 22-year-old is currently regarded by Baseball America as the No. 2 prospect in Boston’s farm system and the 19th-ranked prospect in all of baseball. He is expected to make his major-league debut for the Red Sox at some point this year.
(Picture of Triston Casas: John Tlumacki/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
Infielder Jeter Downs, left-hander Jay Groome, and right-handers Bryan Mata, Connor Seabold, and Josh Winckowski were all optioned to Triple-A Worcester. On the other side of things, infielders Triston Casas, David Hamilton, and Christian Koss, left-hander Chris Murphy, and right-handers Durbin Feltman and Brian Keller were all reassigned to minor-league camp.
Downs, Groome, Mata, Seabold, and Winckowski were optioned to Worcester since they are on Boston’s 40-man roster. According to SoxProspects.com’s roster projections, all but Groome are expected to begin the 2022 season with the WooSox. Mata, of course, is still recovering from Tommy John surgery he underwent last April.
With these five getting optioned, the Red Sox’ spring training roster now consists of 34 40-man roster players. Notables who remain following Wednesday’s cuts include Eduard Bazardo, Brayan Bello, Kutter Crawford, Ronaldo Hernandez, Connor Wong, Jonathan Arauz, and Jarren Duran.
Elsewhere, six non-40-man roster players were sent back to minor-league spring training. Of these six, the most notable is undoubtedly Casas, who is regarded by many — including Baseball America — as the top prospect in Boston’s farm system.
Casas, Feltman, and Keller seem like locks to begin the year with Worcester, while Hamilton, Koss, and Murphy are projected by SoxProspects.com to start out with Double-A Portland.
All told, the Red Sox now have 55 players in major-league camp with Opening Day against the Yankees on April 7 fast approaching.
(Picture of Jeter Downs: Mary DeCicco/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
Using information from four different publications (Baseball America, FanGraphs, MLB Pipeline, and SoxProspects.com), BloggingtheRedSox.com has ranked the top 33 prospects in the Red Sox farm system heading into the 2022 season.
To nobody’s surprise, this group is headlined by the infield trio of Marcelo Mayer, Triston Casas, and Nick Yorke. This is certainly interesting when you consider the fact that Mayer (2021), Yorke (2020), and Casas (2018) were the last three players the Red Sox selected in the first round of the amateur draft.
Mayer is regarded by Baseball America and MLB Pipeline as Boston’s top overall prospect, while FanGraphs and SoxProspects have him at No. 2. Casas, on the other hand, is ranked No. 1 by FanGraphs and SoxProspects but No. 2 by Baseball America and MLB Pipeline. Yorke is ranked No. 3 by all four.
This is how the order was determined. For instance, the average of Casas’ four rankings and Mayer’s four rankings comes out to 1.5 [(1+1+2+2)/4)]. The tiebreaker went to Mayer since he is younger then Casas. From there, Yorke and 30 additional Red Sox prospects were ranked, with left-hander Jeremy Wu-Yelland rounding things out at No. 33.
With that, here is the full list of 33 beginning with Mayer and ending with Wu-Yelland. Let’s get to it.
Ward underwent Tommy John surgery last June and will not be ready for the start of the 2022 season. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
Baseball America organizational rank: 31 FanGraphs organizational rank: 41 MLB Pipeline organizational rank: Not Ranked SoxProspects organizational rank: 35
Average: 35.67
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Other prospects who missed the cut but are still worth monitoring this season include pitchers Eduard Bazardo, Durbin Feltman, Luis Perales, and Jacob Wallace as well as position players like Cameron Cannon, Tyler Dearden, Ryan Fitzgerald, Niko Kavadas, Enderso Lira, and Stephen Scott, among others.
(Picture of Marcelo Mayer and Chaim Bloom: Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
In evaluating this position group, MLB.com’s William Boor writes that Casas has 60-grade arm strength (20-80 scouting scale) since he both pitched and played third base in high school. Boor also projects that Casas will make his major-league debut this year.
Casas, who turned 22 in January, enters the 2022 season ranked by MLB Pipeline as the No. 2 prospect in Boston’s farm system behind only fellow infielder Marcelo Mayer.
At this time last spring, Casas was preparing for his third full season in the Red Sox organization after being selected by the club in the first round (26th overall pick) in the 2018 amateur draft out of American Heritage High School in Plantation, Fla.
Coming off a 2020 campaign that was altered drastically by the COVID-19 pandemic, Casas opened the 2021 season with Double-A Portland. While he had to step away from affiliated ball on two separate occasions to help Team USA qualify for and win a silver medal in the Tokyo Olympics, the left-handed hitter still batted .284/.395/.484 (142 wRC+) with 12 doubles, three triples, 13 home runs, 52 RBIs, 57 runs scored, six stolen bases, 49 walks, and 63 strikeouts across 77 games (329 plate appearances) for the Sea Dogs.
Shortly before the minor-league season came to a close, the Red Sox promoted Casas to Triple-A Worcester. In nine games with the WooSox, the Florida native slashed .242/.381/.485 (130 wRC+) to go along with three doubles, one triple, one homer, seven RBIs, six runs scored, one stolen base, eight walks, and eight strikeouts over nine games and 42 trips to the plate.
Most minor-leaguers knew their season was over by October. Casas, however, was not done, as he was one of eight Red Sox prospect who headed out west to play for the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League.
Appearing in 21 games with Scottsdale, Casas crushed just one home run but posted a .982 OPS (12th-highest in the league) en route to being named an AFL All-Star.
Following the conclusion of the brief AFL season, Casas was able to remain in touch with the Red Sox throughout the MLB lockout since he has yet to be added to the club’s 40-man roster. As such, the hulking 6-foot-4, 252 pounder participated in the Sox’ Winter Warm-Up program that preceded the start of minor-league spring training.
Had the lockout not ended last week, Casas would still be at minor-league camp in Fort Myers. He was instead one of 12 non-roster invitees added to the Red Sox’ spring training roster on Saturday and is likely to get into some Grapefruit League games as soon as this weekend.
With Casas being present at major-league camp for a second straight spring, Red Sox manager Alex Cora has the opportunity to get another extended look at the promising 22-year-old who may share some of the same habits as veteran slugger J.D. Martinez.
“Very structured in his routine. Very J.D.-like if you want to call it that,” Cora said of Casas this past Sunday. “So I think they’re going to be fighting for that cage time. But because he (Casas) is a rookie, he probably has to show up at five in the morning and get it. Because when J.D. gets here, it’s his cage.”
Regardless of how he performs this spring, Casas will likely return to Worcester for the start of the 2022 minor-league season. He could, however, be knocking on the door and eventually be making his big-league debut at some point this summer.
(Picture of Triston Casas: Barry Chin/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
The Red Sox have added 12 non-roster invitees to their spring training roster, the club announced earlier Saturday. The list of invitees consists of catcher Kole Cottam, infielders Triston Casas, Ryan Fitzgerald, David Hamilton, and Christian Koss, outfielder Franchy Cordero, and pitchers Chris Murphy, Durbin Feltman, Geoff Hartlieb, Brian Keller, Kaleb Ort, and John Schreiber.
Of these 12 minor-leaguers, four (Cordero, Hartlieb, Ort, and Schreiber) have already played in the majors while two (Hamilton and Keller) were acquired by Boston in some capacity this off-season.
Casas, 22, is undoubtedly the top prospect on this list. The left-handed hitting first baseman enters the 2022 season ranked by Baseball America as the No. 2 prospect in the Sox’ farm system behind only Marcelo Mayer. He is coming off a year in which he played for Double-A Portland, Triple-A Worcester, Team USA in the Summer Olympics, and the Scottsdale Scorpions of the Arizona Fall League.
Kottam and Koss played alongside Casas in Arizona last fall. Hamilton, meanwhile, suited up for the Salt River Rafters before he and fellow infielder Alex Binelas were traded from the Brewers to the Red Sox in December.
Among the pitching contingent, Murphy — a left-hander — and Feltman are the only two true prospects listed. That being said, Keller is certainly appealing seeing how he was scooped up from the Yankees in the minor-league phase of the Rule 5 Draft earlier this winter.
With the addition of these 12 players, the Red Sox now have 23 non-roster invitees on their spring training roster.
BOSTON RED SOX NON-ROSTER INVITEES (23)
PITCHERS (12): Silvino Bracho, Taylor Cole, Tyler Danish, Michael Feliz, Durbin Feltman, Darin Gillies, Geoff Hartlieb, Brian Keller, Zack Kelly, Chris Murphy, Kaleb Ort, John Schreiber
CATCHERS (2): Roldani Baldwin, Kole Cottam
INFIELDERS (6): Triston Casas, Ryan Fitzgerald, David Hamilton, Christian Koss, Roberto Ramos, Yolmer Sánchez
OUTFIELDERS (3): Franchy Cordero, Rob Refsnyder, Christin Stewart
According to MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith, Boston will officially open big-league camp in Fort Myers on Sunday, though their first official workout is not expected until Monday or Tuesday.
Blogging the Red Sox 