Why Triston Casas should be playing for the Boston Red Sox this week

As we approach the end of August, with a little more than a month left in the season, the fate of the 2022 Boston Red Sox is still undecided.

While they should be a much better team than they’ve been for most of the year, in the words of Bill Parcells, “you are what your record says you are.”

Right now, what the Sox are is a team that’s 5 games out of the wild card. However, they are 6-4 in their last 10 and appear to be making another run at getting back into it, even as they seem to be barely hanging on. And of course, we all know how September schedules work as well, with division series after division series, each an opportunity to make up ground.

But if the Sox can keep the boat afloat for just a while longer, reinforcements may be on the way in the form of a top prospect.

Triston Casas ready to contribute for Boston Red Sox

Coming into the season, it was a matter of when, not if, Triston Casas would be called up to the big leagues. However, an early season ankle injury put that on hold, as the big first baseman would miss almost two months rehabbing.

Once he came back in July, it took Casas a little while to re-adjust to AAA pitching, but since the calendar turned to August, he’s been as hot as a firecracker. In 16 games this month so far, he’s hitting .309 with a .950 OPS. He’s even got several hits in the clutch, like this walk off shot to the wall last week.

This is not a Jarren Duran type prospect, who was a good-not-great player before a good season sprung him to the top of the farm system and into the majors. We’ve seen how that’s gone. No, Casas is as close to a sure thing as the Sox system has produced since Rafael Devers, pretty much universally ranked as their No. 2 prospect, behind only Marcelo Mayer.

All this is to say: the kid is ready to go, so let’s get him up to the show. There’s no point keeping him in AAA anymore when he is already a better option than what manager Alex Cora is stuck running out daily. And luckily for Sox fans, it should happen as soon as early this week.

Tuesday marks key date for Casas, Boston Red Sox

As it turns out, a change in the new CBA means that we should only have to wait a few more days to see Casas in Boston. In fact, we may only have to wait until Tuesday, which marks only 44 days left on the calendar.

According to Christopher Smith of Masslive.com, waiting until there are less than 45 days in the season to promote a prospect can have a useful reward.

"The Boston Red Sox are able to promote Triston Casas from Triple-A Worcester as early as Tuesday and still keep his rookie status intact for next season. A player’s rookie status carries into the next season if he is on the active roster for fewer than 45 days and records fewer than 130 at-bats. Why is this so important? The Red Sox, as part of the new collective bargaining agreement, will receive a draft pick if Casas starts next season on the Opening Day roster and finishes in the top three for the AL Rookie of the Year."

What a surprise, that it all comes back to acquiring another draft pick with Chaim Bloom calling the shots. The way that MLB basically encourages teams to keep prospects in the minors longer than they need to, both with this CBA provision and yearly service time manipulation of top prospects coming out of Spring Training, is incredibly strange but that’s beside the point.

The big story here is that Casas should be on his way to Boston this week, and his arrival would only be a positive for a team looking for any kind of spark it can get. As soon as that deadline passes, Bloom should be on the phone to Worcester to officially promote Casas. There’s really just no excuse for him to spend any more time in the minors.

Plus, the sooner we can get him under newcomer Eric Hosmer’s guiding wing the better, which is just another benefit of Bloom’s best deadline move.

So start the countdown, Boston. Casas is just the first of many that will come up from the Sox revamped farm system in the next few years, but he’s a good one. Our first baseman of the future is on the way, and come the middle of next week, Triston Casas should be on the major league roster.