Boston Red Sox Rumors: Will Triston Casas make it to the majors in 2022?

The Boston Red Sox offseason really hasn’t gone as expected, and that was before the MLB Lockout put a hold on their plans.

The Sox brought in three pitchers, none of which are particularly reliable, and traded away one of their starting outfielders, Hunter Renfroe, without a solid replacement in tow.

While no one really knows when the lockout is going to end (hopefully soon), the Sox are going to be thrown into the season in short order. Spring Training games have already been pushed back to at least March 5th, and there are still a ton of free agents on the market that will quickly have to find a new team before the season starts.

While Boston will still have some time to finish up their offseason work, they didn’t really put themselves in the best spot heading into the lockout. They still need a late-inning bullpen arm or two, a starting outfielder, and a bench infielder to shore up their roster. It would have been nice to address some of these positions before things got shut down, but that’s just how the cookie crumbles sometimes.

While there’s a chance the Sox won’t be able to address all those needs in free agency, they have some prospects that they could look to call up at some point to help out in the majors. One of those prospects is lefty slugger Triston Casas, who looks like a top candidate to make the jump to the majors this season. Casas could be a big part of the team’s future, but he also could help out in a number of ways this season if he were to find his way to the major league roster.

Triston Casas could fill a number of holes for the Boston Red Sox

Casas was the Boston Red Sox first round selection of the 2018 MLB Draft, and he’s quickly risen through the minors to become on the verge of finding his way to the majors. Casas is a lefty slugger that plays first base, and with Bobby Dalbec having some struggles at first last season, his name isn’t exactly locked into the position for the future.

Casas will almost certainly start the season with Boston’s Triple-A affiliate, the Worcester Red Sox. After starting the 2021 season in Double-A with the Portland Sea Dogs, Casas was part of the Team USA baseball team that took part in the 2021 Summer Olympics games, and ended up winning a silver medal, as well as All-Olympic Team honors. He finished things off with the WooSox, and with a solid start to the season, it’s not hard to see him being a mid-summer callup.

The potential outlook for Casas has always been as a slugging first baseman. He’s shown the potential to be a .280-.290 hitter with around 30 homers in the minors, and if he can translate that to the majors, that would solve Boston’s first base problems for the foreseeable future. There have been times where he has struggled to hit for contact and power, as he hit just .217 in the Olympics but managed to turn that into three homers and eight runs batted in.

Much of this situation depends on what happens with Dalbec, and whether the team decides to aggressively pursue a reunion with Kyle Schwarber. At this point, a Schwarber return seems unlikely, and while hit bat was a nice fit, he really wouldn’t have a spot in the field. Dalbec had a strong second half of the season, but if he wants to hold onto his spot at first he’s going to need a more complete season.

Ultimately what could happen is that one of Dalbec or Casas will start at first and the other will slide in at designated hitter in 2023. J.D. Martinez is probably entering his final season with the Sox, and they are going to need someone to replace him. Some have suggested Schwarber could be that guy, but there’s no sense in blocking these prospects’ paths to the majors if you don’t have to.

Casas was recently ranked as the 46th best prospect in the league by Kiley McDaniel of ESPN coming into the season, and he’s probably one of the most likely callup candidates of the bunch for 2022. He would likely start off as a bench guy who could be pinch-hitting candidate late in games. The issue is he doesn’t offer much in terms of fielding, so it would be tough to justify him having a spot if he isn’t hitting.

The Boston Red Sox have gotten their farm system back of track after Dave Dombrowski gutted it to build the 2018 World Series team, and it’s time to start reaping the benefits. Giving Casas his start this season, even in a minimal role, would put this team in a better spot for 2023. He’s going to get a shot in 2023 regardless of what happens in 2022, so may as well get him acclimated to life in the majors early on.

Casas may not be a five-tool prospect, but he has the potential to become a key piece of the Boston Red Sox future lineups, and getting his feet wet this season could prove crucial to his development down the line. It’ll probably be a limited role, but expect to see Casas on the big league club at some point in 2022.