Three Sox prospects take center stage
While Triston Casas was slated to come to New England for the Red Sox Winter Weekend, the young slugger made a point of coming in a few days early.
The first baseman wanted to spend time with members of the coaching staff and front office, including an in-person introduction to new chief baseball officer Craig Breslow. But Casas also wanted to spend days with the participants in the Red Sox’ Rookie Development Program.
He asked the Sox if he could join the 12 participants so that he could get to know them and answer questions they might have from a peer who just completed his rookie season. The Sox, obviously, were elated.
On Wednesday afternoon, as Casas discussed the group’s virtues — their sharp-mindedness, wit, and surprising maturity — he took amusement at being in position to share his worldly experiences.
“I guess I’m getting old now,” smirked Casas, who turned 24 on Monday.
On one hand, the claim seems absurd. Yet as he stood next to some of the prospects, the claim had merit.
Catcher Kyle Teel, the team’s first-round pick out of the University of Virginia last summer, turns 22 next month. Marcelo Mayer, a first-round pick out of high school in 2021, turned 21 in December (this week marked the Southern California native’s first exposure to snow). Roman Anthony, a 2022 second-rounder from South Florida, won’t turn 20 until May.
Those three are slated to open 2024 together in Double A Portland. Yet their presence at Fenway Park in a program created to help acclimate nearterm big league contributors served as a testament to the considerable hopes that the Red Sox have pinned on the trio.
On Tuesday, Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow identified that group as “part of this young core around who we intend to build.” The trio took stock of that bold statement at a time when they remain two levels away from the big leagues.
“It’s an honor to be mentioned in that conversation, and it’s a testament to all of our hard work,” said Teel.
“It’s an honor to be counted on and it’s an honor to be mentioned,” said Anthony, who hit .272/.403/.466 with 14 homers and 16 steals across three levels last year. “But we’re not there yet and none of us have gotten there yet. We’ve got a lot of work to do and a long ways to go before we’re there.”
“It’s definitely exciting and it’s an honor to be talked about like that, but at the end of the day, we haven’t done anything,” agreed Mayer. “We’re here in a rookie development camp trying to get better and in order for that to become a reality, we know that we have to work extremely hard.”
Still, all three have shown the talent to suggest atypical potential.
Though six months removed from the draft, Teel is viewed as one of the top catching prospects in baseball given his virtues as a strong, athletic, smart catcher who possesses offensive promise rarely seen in catchers.
Anthony turned heads early last year based on how hard he was hitting the ball and his approach at the plate, traits that soon translated to in-game performance as one of the youngest players in High A and Double A.
Mayer was a standout performer for Single A Salem in 2022 and High A Greenville in the early months of 2023, showing the ability to drive pitches in the air to all fields as well as the smooth actions of a capable shortstop.
His performance took a downward turn with Portland, partly attributable to a left shoulder impingement in May that ultimately impacted his ability to hit. Mayer proclaimed himself recovered.
“It’s in the past. My shoulder’s in a great spot,” said Mayer, who was described by farm director Brian Abraham as a full go for spring training. “I started swinging it a few days ago, it feels as good as ever, so I’m excited for the new year.”
The excitement about the group — and what it might mean for them to develop together — is felt across the organization. The trio represents the best top three to come through the Sox system together since Andrew Benintendi, Yoan Moncada, and Rafael Devers were together to start 2016, and before that, since Mookie Betts opened 2014 in Portland with Blake Swihart and Henry Owens (then regarded among the top prospects in baseball).
“We know they’re good players who have the potential to be great players,” said Abraham. “In terms of what they’ve done so far, the types of people they are, the type of work they put in, the willingness to be great, we’re really excited about them.”
Of course, excitement about potential is different than the transformation of a big league team that finished last the last two years and three of the last four. In the short term, for any of the heralded prospects to reach the big leagues this year would represent a blistering development pace.
Longer term, nothing is guaranteed. After all, while both the Benintendi/Moncada/ Devers and Betts/Swihart/Owens trios played huge roles in the 2018 World Series title, only one from each group reached his anticipated ceiling.
To their credit, the current group of top prospects acknowledged that notion — noting that the translation of potential to performance is not preordained, but something that must be forged.
“I think I can speak for all the guys here when I say the end goal is the same. It’s to hold up that banner and win a World Series here in Boston,” said Anthony. “I think we’re all just working as hard as we can to get there and enjoying each step of the way.”