The trials and toils of a Major League Baseball season can be hard on everyone involved in them, players, managers, owners and fans alike. And it’s especially hard when the local team is bad, mediocre or simply out of the running for the playoffs by the time the calendar flips to September. All these things are true of the 2022 Boston Red Sox.
A team that got off to an awful 10–19 start by mid-May, seemingly turned their season around with a dominant 20-win June, but then had a disastrous July and an uninspiring August that all but took them out of the playoff hunt. There hasn’t been much to cheer about on Yawkey Way this year. However, the last month of the year can still give fans something to look forward to. Usually, teams call up prospects from the minors for the final month of the season to see what the youngsters can provide at the major league level. The Red Sox used this opportunity to bring one of their top prospects, first baseman Triston Casas.
Casas was a first-round draft pick by the Sox out of American Heritage High School in Florida in 2018, and he quickly became known as one of the game’s must-see prodigies. The prototype of a big-league slugger at 6 feet 4 inches, 240 pounds (1), his power was on full display in Boston’s minor leagues, hitting 46 home runs in 284 minor league games at various levels from rookie ball to Triple-A Worcester.
Casas also gained valuable experience by playing on the U.S. team that earned the silver medal in baseball at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo. The Red Sox invited Casas to spring training in Fort Myers, Fla., but was sent back to Worcester to start the season. Casas was ranked highly by many publications, such as MLB.com, Fangraphs and Baseball America, as a top-20 prospect in the entire majors. After another solid season with the WooSox, hitting .273 with a .382 on-base percentage and .863 OPS in 72 games, Casas got the call to the majors (1).
First base was a significant problem for the Red Sox heading into 2022, and they did little to address it. After passing up on signing big names in free agency, such as Freddie Freeman or Anthony Rizzo, they tried to platoon Bobby Dalbec and Franchy Cordero at first, but neither of them showed much prowess with either their bats or gloves to hold the job full-time. So, when Casas got the call to the majors in early September, many Red Sox fans rejoiced at the chance to see the man who they hoped could be their first baseman of the future.
Casas, in his debut on Sept. 4 against the Texas Rangers, almost instantaneously made an impact (2). He made a nice pick at first on a hard-hit ground ball to make an out at first, then in his first major league at-bat, got into a pitch deep into right field, down the line, around the Pesky Pole, but it died on the warning track for a flyout. Casas would, however, get his first official big league hit in his debut, on a hard-hit ground ball to shortstop. On Sept. 6, Casas got his first career home run against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Fla. (3). If he develops the way the team hopes, the Red Sox could have a fine player for years to come.
1. https://www.baseball-reference.com/register/player.fcgi?id=casas-000tri
2. https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2022/09/triston-casas-impresses-on-field-with-postgame-speech-in-boston-red-sox-debut-he-knows-this-is-where-hes-supposed-to-be.html
3. https://www.bostonherald.com/2022/09/06/triston-casas-hits-first-career-home-run-in-red