Boston Red Sox prospect Triston Casas is a big winner in lockout ending

Red Sox prospect Triston Casas benefits from the lockout ending

Jeff Hardy returned on Wednesday and the Hardy Boyz are back together. Yet, somehow that wasn’t the best return of the week. The MLB lockout is officially over. Grown adults were weeping tears of joy. Baseball is back and already gearing up. There’s no time to waste. Everyone’s happy, but it might be Boston Red Sox prospect Triston Casas who is one of the biggest winners of the lockout finally ending.

One of the major talking points of this offseason was what Boston would do at first base and a pretty popular option was Casas.

The prospect has yet to make his major league debut but Casas did a lot to impress in 2021. That included a strong showing in Double-A, good numbers in Triple-A (in a very short period), and a phenomenal showcase in the Olympics.

Despite it being a short trip in Triple-A, people were wondering if it was enough thanks to his Olympic experience. Could a strong showing in Spring Training be enough for Casas to win the job? Hard to argue against it. But that was in serious jeopardy if there was a delay to the season.

Now, the minor league season was still going to go on as planned. So it’s not like Casas (and the other Red Sox prospects) would be sitting at home twirling their thumbs. They would still be getting their normal MiLB schedules in. But suddenly this changes things for the left-handed hitter.

There would be the uncertainty of not knowing when the MLB season was going to start. The chance of injury that could cause Boston to go in another direction if the season starts with him on the shelf. And of course, not-great playing leading to them feeling like he might need a little more seasoning.

To be fair, an injury could still happen before the regular season and poor play in Spring Training could still lead to Casas not getting the starting nod for Opening Day. But this all limits those chances.

This means the only thing really stopping Triston Casas from not debuting as early as possible, is Casas himself. And with the way he mashes (.279/.394/.484 last season), it’s hard to see that being much of an issue.

Okay, this may not seem like big deal to some people. They might look at it and think “okay, he maybe would have had to wait a few extra months for his debut. What’s the big deal?” Let’s not forget about 2020 though. Casas already lost a season of development due to the pandemic taking away the MiLB season in 2020. A lockout potentially delaying his debut wasn’t going to sit right.

This puts the power back in the hands of Casas and any Boston Red Sox fan knows that he’s got a ton of power.