Casas eyes full career with Sox
‘I want to be here forever’
FORT MYERS, FLA. >> Triston Casas wants to be a Red Sock for life.
With his offseason beard gone, it was easy to see a beaming smile on the first baseman’s face during his first media scrum of spring training, in which he spoke about what he hopes will be a long future with the organization.
“It’s so exciting,” he said of being back. “I was just on the drive over here, on Alligator Alley, and I was just thinking about how many times I’ve done this drive, how many times I hope to do it again.
“I was like, oh my gosh, I love this drive so much! Just always a good feeling to come into Fort Myers.”
Somehow, it’s already the 24-year-old’s seventh year in the Red Sox organization. They selected him in the first round of the 2018 draft, he debuted in September 2022, and became the team’s starting first baseman last season. These are his people, this is his team, this is where he wants to be. He made sure to attend every camp and meetup the team had this year, traveling to Fort Myers, Texas, the Dominican Republic, and Boston to spend time bonding and training with his teammates. It’s one of the reasons Alex Cora called him the “MVP of the offseason” at Winter Weekend.
“Getting in a routine in the offseason, it’s important for your workouts, for practicing skill, but that was one thing that I wanted to work on was like, camaraderie, like building team unity,” Casas said. “I just wanted to be as available to the org as I could, and to the teammates that wanted to help me get better, because it wasn’t like I was going there and we were just doing whatever; we were getting there and getting stuff done.
“It was a good space to be productive, and what better people to do it with than my teammates that I’m hopefully gonna spend a lot of time with for the next couple years.”
“Yeah, of course,” Casas said when asked if he’d be open to discussing a contract extension with the club. “I want to be here forever. This is not a bad place to play, it’s actually the best, I think, so I’d love to be here.”
In fact, those discussions have already begun. “Of course, of course we have,” he said, but quickly added, “nothing enticing though.”
In the aftermath of the Mookie Betts trade and coming dangerously close to Rafael Devers’ set negotiating window closing last winter, members of the Sox brass have spoken about the need and desire to lock in young stars before they get too close to free agency. It’s something the Atlanta Braves have done with tremendous success, and other teams are beginning to follow suit. The Pittsburgh Pirates gave Ke’Bryan Hayes a franchise-record 8-year, $70M extension in the spring of ’22, after he’d played 120 games over his first two seasons in the Majors. Earlier this month, the Kansas City Royals signed Bobby Witt Jr. to their own franchise-record 11-year, $288.8M deal with a 3-year, $89M option ahead of his third big-league campaign.
Casas is a clear candidate for an early extension. As was the case with Hayes at the time of his deal, he’s has only played one full season in the Majors. He isn’t eligible for arbitration until 2026, and won’t reach free agency until 2029.
Even so, it’s almost impossible to be a lifer in today’s game. The Red Sox, who are about to embark upon their 124th season, have had tens of thousands of players wear their uniform. Only 13 did so exclusively over big-league careers of at least 10 years, and Dustin Pedroia (2006-19) and Jason Varitek (1997-11) stand alone in this century. Casas wants to be No. 14.
That’s a concern for another day though. Thus far, the two sides aren’t aligned. The first baseman wasn’t sure what the offer would have to be to get him to sign on the dotted line.
“One that sets me and my family up for life,” he explained. “I don’t know what that looks like.”
That doesn’t mean he’s asking for anything outrageous, though. “I’m lowmaintenance,” he said. “I don’t need a lot. I got a small family. I don’t need much, but something that I think would suffice the work that I’ve put in throughout my whole life would be nice.”
It sounds like the Red Sox’s track record of lowballing homegrown stars continues, though. When asked if what Betts said about the hardest offer to turn down being the first one had also been the case for him, Casas’ answer was immediate and succinct: “Uh, no.”
Cora believes Devers can improve defensively
Rafael Devers historically hasn’t been a good defensive third basemen. He’s consistently ranked among the worst performers at the position and last year led all MLB third basemen with 19 errors.
Though Red Sox manager Alex Cora recognizes Devers needs to improve, he believes the young All-Star still has plenty of room to grow, and Sunday he tossed out a lofty comparison between Devers and recent Hall of Fame-elect Adrian Beltre.
“There’s a Hall of Famer now, one of the greatest third basemen in the big leagues, he makes 13, 29 and 23 (errors) in his first three years, and he’s probably one of the best defensive third basemen in the history of the game, and I saw it happen and I saw how hard it was for him to not make errors, then all of a sudden it became easy for him,” Cora said. “I’m not saying we have the next Adrian Beltre, hopefully we do, but if we look back at Raffy’s career, shoot man, it’s been a great start.”
Cora said Devers possesses the athleticism, arm and instincts to thrive at the hot corner, but his Achilles heel has always been his mental approach. When Devers commits an error he’s often had trouble putting it behind him, and as a result one error can sometimes snowball into three or four in quick succession.
To help avoid similar issues this year, Cora said they’re going to make a point to help him reset when errors inevitably happen.
“The most important thing here is the way he attacks the day after that happens and the people we have here, the support system,” Cora said. “We’re going to be more proactive in that sense to help him deal with those struggles.”
One way the Red Sox might do that is by giving Devers the next day off his feet as a designated hitter, but Cora said Devers dislikes D-Hing and the club would rather do it to keep him fresh than for defensive reasons. Cora said Devers will likely DH a lot during spring training to ensure he gets enough at bats, and once the season begins he’ll get extra time off his feet due to the early West Coast trip and subsequent run of day games at Fenway Park.
But big picture, Cora is confident in Devers’ talents and believes playing next to Trevor Story for a full season will help a lot too. Even if he’s not expecting Devers to immediately blossom into a Gold Glover, he’s confident the 27-year-old can take the next step, much like Beltre did two decades ago.
“Hopefully we can get him to be average or a little bit above average,” Cora said. “If we do that we’re going to be in a good spot.”