What to expect from Triston Casas in 2023
Last offseason for baseball fans was a complete disaster with a lockout impacting the entire normal offseason and bleeding into the beginning of the schedule. You could argue that this offseason has gone worse for Red Sox fans. While there have been a few improvements added to the team this winter, fans had to watch the team say goodbye to a franchise caliber player in Xander Bogaerts. The 2023 team will be searching for a new identity with many familiar faces now gone. That new identity will start with Triston Casas.
Casas was one of the more talked about guys last offseason on the roster. Being a top 5 prospect in the system, the talk was very warranted. The question was not if he would crack the roster, but when. An injury ended up delaying the eventual debut of the top prospect, but Casas managed to get some much need at bats at the major league level. It’s a very small sample size, but Casas managed to post a .766 OPS in 76 at bats against major league pitching down the stretch. He also managed to strike out 23 times in those 76 at bats, which will be an area he will look to improve on in 2023. For the most part, he looked the part of a big leaguer and definitely passed the eye test.
Fast forward now to 2023, where Casas is looking like the opening day starter for the Red Sox as things stand right now. Even after the DFA of Eric Hosmer, our pals over at Baseball Reference have pretty low expectations for Casas for next season:
It’s fair to project these kind of numbers for a guy who has less than 100 career ABs at the major league level. It’s also fair to lowball him due to the fact he is coming off an injury last season and couldn’t play a majority of the summer. Casas should and will be the primary starter at first base this next year and barring any set backs with an injury or a major slump on the horizon, should be able to outperform these numbers based off his lines coming through the minor league levels.
The Red Sox did make a splash with another free agent signing this week, which our very own Chris Henrique broke:
Something interesting in regards to the Turner signing, is where the Red Sox see his fit next year. Turner, who is now 38, has primarily been a third baseman during his career but he obviously wont be playing any or even a few games over at the hot corner that belongs to Rafael Devers.
With the Sox viewing Turner as a guy who will spend a little time at first, that will limit Casas exposure to left handed starters until he can prove to be a steady option against lefties. Which in turn, is another reason why his projected numbers seem rather low. For the Red Sox sake, lets hope Casas completely shatters those projected numbers. For a lineup that isn’t bringing back Bogaerts or J.D. Martinez, they will need a bat in the middle of the order who can pick up that slack and bring much needed power to a lineup who managed to finish in the bottom ten of the league in that category.
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We need to quit acting like JD Martinez was a big loss in the middle of the lineup. The fact that he was in the middle of the lineup last year was part of the problem.