Sox select Casas in opening round
Triston Casas’ potential to become an elite power hitter was the primary draw for the Red Sox making the 18-year-old third baseman out of American Heritage High School in Plantation, Fla, as their first pick of the 2018 draft last night.
Considering he has power to the opposite field similar to Andrew Benintendi, only makes the prospect of Casas evolving into a home-grown hitter with pop that much more enticing.
For Casas, the 26th pick overall, he is delighted to get his chance with the Red Sox and to play at Fenway Park, a place where he had an earlier workout.
“I love the way that Fenway fit right in the middle of (the city), just like another building,” said Casas in a conference call last night. “I’m really excited and I can’t be more happy with the way (last night) turned out. I feel like the park suits my swing well and hopefully I get up to the big league club soon and make an impact.”
Casas said that hitting to all fields comes naturally to him.
“It was preached to me at a young age to hit the ball to all fields and try to become a complete hitter because I knew I was going to become big and strong, so at that point it was just having the ability to barrel up balls and the ball that I got a little backspin on happened to go out of the yard,” said Casas.
Casas has played both third and first base. But it sure seems as if he likes to hit most of all.
“My greatest comfort in the field is probably in the lineup,” said Casas. “To me, it doesn’t matter where I play. I feel that makes me pretty valuable to a team. I’m pretty versatile, and I can play multiple positions pretty well. Whether it be third base or first base, left field, right field, catcher, shortstop, center field, to me it doesn’t matter. I love making an impact at the plate, and to me, the field is just a little bit of a bonus.”
Casas committed to the University of Miami, but the Red Sox don’t have to worry about competing with the Hurricanes, Alex Cora’s old team.
“It was kind of evident that I wanted to get drafted and playing baseball is something I wanted to do for a living, and the quicker I can get started, the better,” said Casas. “I’m not going to lie — I love the city of Boston. I like this fit. It’s going to be hard for me to turn this down.”
Some of the mock drafts, including two draft experts on mlb.com, had Casas getting drafted 16th by the Rays. Casas did not know what to expect but at the end of the day he was quite happy.
“Coming into the day I definitely knew a couple of teams were interested, and just depended on the way board fell,” said Casas. “I’m glad the way the board fell and I feel like Boston’s a great fit for me and I couldn’t be happier with the way it turned out to be honest.”
The Tigers picked first: right-hander Casey Mize out of Auburn.
The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Mize had long been linked to the Tigers, and he pitched his way this season to the top spot on Detroit’s list. Mize went undrafted out of high school three years ago, but developed into a potential big league ace while in college.
“It means a ton,” Mize said in an interview on MLB Network’s broadcast. “I’m very thankful that the Tigers thought of me enough to take me with their first selection. I can’t describe this feeling right now.”
Mize is 10-5 with a 2.95 ERA and 151 strikeouts with just 12 walks in 1092⁄3 innings while helping the Tigers to the NCAA tournament super regionals. Mize has solid command of four pitches, including a fastball that hovers in the mid-90s (mph). His outstanding command and wicked split changeup whip up lots of swings and misses.