Despite early struggles, Red Sox aren’t rushing Triston Casas
Chief baseball officer of the Boston Red Sox, Chaim Bloom, spoke to the media over the weekend. One of the topics discussed was in regards to Red Sox no. 2 prospect, Triston Casas.
Are the Red Sox ready to call up the first baseman?
"“He had a really interesting and great developmental year last year but just because of how it was broken up with the Olympics, the moving levels, he wasn’t necessarily in one place for long enough to really have the league make a lot of adjustments to him and then for him having to adjust in return,” Bloom said via Christopher Smith of MassLive."
Simply put, the Red Sox want to make sure Casas is ready to compete in the major leagues at a high level. They don’t want to rush him into something that will only hurt his confidence.
That doesn’t mean Red Sox Nation isn’t growing impatient especially with the lack of production at first base this season.
Current first baseman, Bobby Dalbec is hitting just .139/.225/.215 on the season. Lots of fans have called for his removal from the lineup. Backup first baseman Travis Shaw was designated for assignment a couple of weeks ago after going 0-19 in the games he played.
First base isn’t the only position in this Red Sox lineup that hasn’t produced at the plate.
Collectively as a team, they are hitting an abysmal .228/.279/.342 with a 21.7% strikeout rate, and 6.7% walk rate. All of those numbers rank in the bottom half of the league.
Casas on the season has slashed .260/.373/.500/.873 in 126 plate appearances. He has 27 hits with six homers and seven doubles. He has 20 runs batted in and 20 runs scored. His strikeout rate is 23.0% and his walk rate is 15.1%.
For Casas, starting his first full season in Triple-A Worcester, those are overall great numbers. Taking a deeper dive into those stats, he is just 4-for-26 (.154) with one extra-base hit against left-handers. He needs to develop that part of his game before he is ready to join the Boston club.
"“One of the things about the game today more than at any point maybe ever, certainly at any point I’ve been in it, is when you get to the major leagues, there is already a book on you. We have a lot of information,” Bloom said. “And you will get attacked the way you should be attacked from pitch one. So going through that period of making those adjustments is really important I think for any young hitter.”"
I would love to see Casas have more success than Jarren Duran did when he was first called up last season. To help with that, the Red Sox need him to gain more reps at the Triple-A level.
Obviously, the Red Sox could use his bat with the lineup in its current state. I like the patience that Bloom is showing in regards to this situation. It’s one thing to call Casas up because the team needs him to contribute rather than calling him up because he is ready to contribute.
Whenever he is ready to don the white Red Sox jersey and step up to the plate in historic Fenway Park, Red Sox Nation will be cheering on their future All-Star first baseman for years to come.