Casas mirrors J.D.’s approach
Sox heap praise on top prospect
Triston Casas just turned 21 years old, he’s yet to play higher than Class A ball, but already, his Red Sox coaches are ready to compare him to one of baseball’s best hitters of the last decade.
There’s no question that Casas, the Red Sox’ No. 1 prospect, has special offensive potential, but it was notable this week when manager Alex Cora mentioned J.D. Martinez’s name while answering a question about Casas.
“The approach, the swing, the thought process, you have to see him in the cage,” Cora said of Casas. “Like, we talk about J.D. and everything he does. This guy is right there with him. In a good way, in a good way. It’s impressive, it’s impressive.”
It’s lofty praise, to say the least. Martinez is a threetime All-Star and has won the Silver Slugger twice. But Red Sox hitting coach Tim Hyers sees it, too. Obviously, Casas doesn’t have the on-field results to show it. It’s in their approach.
“He’s very detailed like J.D.,” Hyers said. “He knows his swing, he knows what he’s coming to the cage each morning to work on, he’s done his homework the night before and thought about those adjustments that he wants to make for the next day, and he has a plan whenever he steps in in the morning to do his routine, just like J.D. It’s very, very similar.”
The Red Sox will obviously hope it translates. Casas has the potential to carry a lineup. At 6-foot-4, 238 pounds, he has the look. And for his age, he has uncommon maturity.
“It’s nice to see and it’s just a credit to his hard work and who he is as a person and as a player,” Casas said. “A lot of young hitters I think don’t value those adjustments early in their career and I think it takes them time to see those adjustments and that it’s important to your daily at-bats and from pitcher to pitcher. He values getting on base, he values the strike zone, he values getting a pitch and having a good plan.
“That doesn’t happen every day with young guys. It takes some guys a lot more at-bats, a lot more experience to see the value in those things.”
Casas should need more at-bats and more experience to be ready for the majors. After all, he missed an entire minor-league season in 2019 because of COVID-19 as he trained during the summer at the Red Sox’ alternate site, which is significant. And he only started getting ingame spring training at-bats this week after having to go back to Boston earlier this month for non-baseball, medical reasons. In his return, Hyers said Casas hasn’t missed a beat.
Realistically, Casas should start the season in Double-A and have a full season in the minor leagues. But the Red Sox are obviously excited about him, and it’s not like they haven’t fast-tracked their best prospects to the big leagues in the past. There’s still no doubt a lot to learn about Casas and where he’ll wind up this season. For now, he doesn’t really have any expectations.
“I’ve always thought of expectations as limitations,” Casas said. “I don’t like to put any expectations on the season or my performance. In baseball, it could be anybody’s game, anybody’s day, so I’m just going to go out there and do my best and let the chips fall where they may. So, I don’t have an idea where I could land level-wise or where I could end up. I’m just going to go out there and try to play hard every day and see where it gets me.”
One way or another, Casas is a big piece of the Red Sox’ future. What Hyers said is most exciting to him is watching Casas — especially at his age — making the kind of adjustments he does, identifying situations and making subtle changes from pitch to pitch, which he doesn’t often see from players that young. It’s shown up in his limited spring training at-bats.
Hyers said it certainly affected Casas that he wasn’t able to play in games last season and didn’t consistently see high-level pitching, but everyone was in the same position. Those at-bats are coming, and he and the Red Sox don’t seem to be concerned that it will impact his promising trajectory.
“It’s just so hard to work on things that you’re not exposed to as often,” Hyers said.
“It’s like building a database in your mind of pitchers and building that rolodex of situations and how the ball moves in different pitchers and game situations that become more detailed as you move up each level. That’s what he missed. But like I said, he’s a hard worker, he’s a talented young man that it won’t take him long to make those adjustments.
“It did have an effect but this year, it looks like things are moving in a better direction and he’ll get those at-bats, and I have no doubt he’s going to have a bright future in this game.”