Serious question: are the Red Sox genuinely considering a trade or Triston Casas – or are they just trying to give him a stern kick in the backside?

In case you missed it, Ken Rosenthal of the The Athletic had this item recently about the Red Sox’ offseason needs and wants. In it, Rosenthal proposed trading Casas to the Seattle Mariners for pitching while moving Rafael Devers to first base and signing a right-handed-hitting third baseman (Alex Bregman or Willy Adames). If you think that Rosenthal is just slinging wet Charmin against the wall, fine. But he’s one of the most well-regarded baseball reporters in the country.

Now the follow-up question: why is Casas’ name even out there? Yes, the Sox have an abundance of young, left-handed-hitting players and/or prospects, including Casas, Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Kyle Teel, Wilyer Abreu and Jarren Duran, among others. Trading one (or a combination of them) for pitching help seems obvious given the dearth of high-level arms in the Boston system. Casas is a former first-round pick who has been hyped as a lineup centerpiece and MVP-caliber player, though he missed much of the year with an injury.

Casas has the chance to be a stud, which is why he could also command a great deal on the trade market. The Red Sox ultimately need to decide whether Casas will live up to his potential, something often determined by things far less measurable than exit velocity, launch angle, swing percentage and strikeout rate.

It’s called makeup.

And with Casas, in particular, there are a lot of variables.

• The contract

  Before the season, Casas was among a group of players with whom the Sox explored long-term contracts. Brayan Bello and Ceddanne Rafaela ended up signing, but no one else did. Casas is on the record as saying the offer the Sox made him was not attractive enough. Whenever this happens with a young player – think Jeremy Swayman with the Bruins – red flags go up everywhere. Does the player have an inflated opinion of himself? Is the team low-balling him? Is this destined to end in a declaration for free agency? Obviously, signability is a huge factor in any negotiation. And if Casas is deemed to be unsignable – for whatever reason – the club needs to explore dealing him. In this case, a young pitcher (whether signable or unsignable for the long-term) might have more value to the team than an unsignable first baseman.  

• Casas’ attitude

  Admittedly, “attitude” is an all-encompassing term. In this case, we mean it in the broadest sense. What’s his general outlook on the game – and himself? What are his values? When Casas first appeared in the big leagues, one of his first acts was to sunbathe, wearing nothing but gym shorts, in right field at Fenway Park. (OK, so he likes to chill.) But Casas did it in a fashion that ensured everyone knew about it, which seems to be a common theme. He is not just a creature of routine. He loves to explain why he does them – and in great detail. Casas sometimes seems so into himself that one wonders whether he sees the proverbial forest through the trees. For example: read this piece by Chad Jennings of The Athletic during the 2023 season. Red Sox coaches seemed frustrated by Casas’ unwillingness to work on common, fundamentals necessities more than rare, flashy plays. Do you understand the correlation with the sunbathing? Casas seems to like an audience and love the attention. But as any adult will tell you, highlights are rarely a good depiction of someone’s true being. Identities are forged by consistency and reliability. The acknowledgment is what follows. When people focus on the latter more than the former, they usually miss the point. As an example, listen to Casas’ explanation last season from a poor defensive decision that came early in the 2023 season. On the play, Casas field a ground ball on the right side of the infield and threw across the diamond, to third base, in hopes of getting a base runner on a tag play. The runner was safe. Casas’ postgame explanation was so mind-numbingly long and needlessly complex that it highlighted his (over)thinking on something that goes back to Little League for most everyone who has ever played baseball: just take the out.

• The approach at the plate, Part 1

  Let’s start with the obvious: Casas is a skilled hitter, with power. But there are fine lines around everything. Early in his career, Casas was heralded for having an unusually mature and developed command of the strike zone, which is to say he was disciplined. This is generally good. But the problem is that Casas was often too patient and passive at the plate, something that has been true of many good young hitters, including Xander Bogaerts. The bottom line is that Casas wasn’t a first-round pick because he can draw a walk; he was a first-round pick because he can hit, which means that he should be swinging the bat in the gray area that exists between patience and passivity. As an example, watch the video below. These at-bats were taken from earlier this season. Obviously, no single at-bat or sequence can fully define a player, but watch where these pitches are and watch Casas’ reaction. Did he have a right to be annoyed on some of them? Sure. Every hitter does. But when you can hit the way Casas can hit, why leave it to chance? In baseball, it’s sometimes best to remember the simplest guidelines that were taught at the youngest age: with two strikes, if the pitch is close, swing the bat. And if someone makes the same mistake over and over again, one starts to wonder about the motivation. Is the hitter more intent on beating the umpire or beating the pitcher?

• The approach at the plate, Part 2

  In any sport, have you ever heard players and coaches talk about adjustments? Well, keep reading. Last weekend, Casas has a three-homer game against thee Minnesota Twins, going deep in each of his first three-at-bats. (In hockey, we’d call this a natural hat trick.) While that is noteworthy in and of itself, the real story here was a little grander in scope. On his first and third at-bats, Casas swung at the first pitch. In the middle at-bat, he saw three strikes – and swung at each of them. Understand the difference? If the pitch was clearly a ball, he laid off. But it was a strike or close to borderline, he swung. The result was arguably Casas’ best day as a professional, though we’ll repeat what we said earlier: careers are not defined by highlights. They’re defined by consistency. Take a look – and pay particular attention to the commentary by analyst Lou Merloni:

• 

  How Triston Casas has fared this season when putting the first pitch in play.

• The conclusion

  So where does this all leave us? Good question. Are the Red Sox’ tired of Casas’ rigidity? Maybe. Are they throwing his name out there as a trade candidate merely to get his attention? Possibly. But whatever the case, they are approaching a crossroads. The Red Sox have a cast of left-handed hitters in their system. Casas is certainly one of them. Logic suggests that the Sox have to trade someone, at some point, from their stockpile of left-handed-hitting positional prospects in order to get pitching. Like Mayer, Anthony, Teel and others, Casas could be part of a solution one way or another.

  But whatever path the Sox choose, they have to get it right.

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