On December 22, Craig Breslow traded three pitchers to the St. Louis Cardinals for Willson Contreras. He'll be used primarily as a first baseman, despite the Boston Red Sox having a homegrown player who's started the last two seasons at the corner.
Contreras is a great addition to Boston's lineup as a right hander with some pop and solid defense to go along with it. His presence puts Triston Casas' future with the Sox at risk.
In his annual writeup of his predictions for the coming season, Red Sox reporter Chris Cotillo of MassLive sees a Casas trade coming following the Contreras acquisition. He notes that a strong spring training or first half performance will be necessary before a trade can occur — Boston has never found a trade suitor for Casas despite multiple attempts, as the young slugger has spent too much of his big league career injured to be seen as a sound investment by other teams.
The Red Sox have previously executed a trade to alleviate a similar roster conundrum, not even one year ago. They signed Alex Bregman to play third base after they spent the offseason telling Rafael Devers that the job was safely his. At least they've been upfront with their expectations for Casas, which is a step in the right direction, but despite their purported confidence, a move could still be on the way.
Red Sox insider projects Boston will trade Triston Casas at some point during 2026 season
Devers and Casas are nowhere near the same caliber of player, but the latter has still only played in just one campaign that was anything close to a full season of baseball. He still has a lot of growing to do at the plate, defensively and health-wise, which is why it'll take a solid spring training or first half rebound to find a trade suitor.
A potential Casas trade could create some similar issues to the ones caused by the Devers trade. The upper levels of Boston's farm system is thin on corner infielders and it has few to no internal options to replace Casas or Contreras if one of them falls injured. The Red Sox haven't had a stash of reliable first basemen for Casas' previous injuries and its cost their defense as well as their ability to score runs because they missed his eye and home run power.
A Casas trade shouldn't be out of the question, though. The 25-year-old hasn't properly settled in at the MLB level over parts of four seasons in the league. Despite his potential, Boston has reached a critical point in its competitive window, and if it needs the roster flexibility to improve, Casas could be one of the first out the door.
Maybe Casas thrives from the start in 2026 and the Red Sox find a productive arrangement for he and Contreras to swap back and forth between first base and designated hitter duties. But if that is not the case, a change of scenery could make sense for the former top prospect.