Did the Red Sox miss their chance to trade Triston Casas?

With the Seattle Mariners in town, this seems like the appropriate time to ask the following: have the Red Sox already missed their chance to trade Triston Casas?

When we say "missed," of course, we're speaking of ideal scenarios. The Red Sox can trade Casas whenever they want - or not at all - but we're talking about maximizing values. And given that the Red Sox reportedly explored trade scenarios during the offseason with, among other teams, the aforementioned Seattle Mariners, one must now wonder whether Casas' value will ever approach its seeming peak at the end of the 2023 season, when Casas batted .317 with 15 home runs, 38 RBI and a 1.034 OPS in 51 games after the All-Star Break.

Of all the players on the 2025 Red Sox roster, after all, perhaps nobody else has seen his value plummet quite like Casas, who is batting .167 with a .491 OPS through the first 20 games of the season. Casas ranks 76th among 76 major league first baseman in overall WAR - that's right, dead last - while placing 75th in offensive ranking and 71st in defensive ranking. It's as if Casas has become the left-handed version of Bobby Dalbec.

Ya Mazz you're cookin the numbahs. It's only 20 games.

OK, fine. Let's expand the sample.

Since he was injured early last season, Casas has lacked the same explosiveness he possessed in the second half of 2023. In his last 61 games, he's batting just .212 with a .661 OPS; in those same 61 games, he has 44 hits and 69 strikeouts. Meanwhile, since the start of 2024, he ranks 25th of 28 major league first basemen (minimum 650 innings) in fielding percentage, fourth in errors, 20th in defensive runs. Get the picture? It's not solely his offense that has worsened., His defense hasn't exactly improved, either.

So what gives? Hard to know. Certainly, Casas is better than this. But what if he isn't as good as we all thought? As much as the Sox might be commended for how they are handling Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer, both players are rapidly advancing toward Fenway Park. The Sox must clear two spaces in the lineup to accommodate them, the most likely candidates for displacement being Casas and Ceddanne Rafaela. The former seems certain to be bumped by Rafael Devers, who name was surfacing as candidate to play first base as early as the end of last season.

So what (and when) will the Sox do? At this stage, it's fair to wonder whether manager Alex Cora wanted to move Casas earlier while chief baseball officer Craig Breslow preached patience. But the clock is now ticking louder. The combination of Anthony (at DH or in the outfielder) and Devers (at DE or first base) now feels far more appealing than that of Devers (at DH) and Casas (at first).

And there will come a time when the Sox simply cannot ignore that sound any further.