Triston Casas

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Triston Ray Casas

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Biographical Information[edit]

Corner infielder Triston Casas was the 26th player selected in the 2018 amateur draft, going in the 1st round to the Boston Red Sox. A large physical specimen for a high school player at 6' 4", 238 lb., he had significant experience for the USA junior national team, having competed for them three times already, both at the U15 and U18 levels, including at the 2017 U-18 Baseball World Cup in Thunder Bay, ON, where the U.S. won gold. He was named the MVP of that tournament but surprisingly did not get the nod as the All-Star first baseman, losing out to Leonardo Seminati of Italy. In the Gold Medal Game, he doubled, homersed, scored two, drove in three and collected 17 putouts against South Korea. He finished at .250 but with a .385 OBP and .625 slugging, homering three times, with 13 RBI and 8 runs in 9 games. He drew six walks, was two-for-two in steals and had 88 chances with no errors. He tied Tan Chiu and Felipe Aguilar for 8th in the Cup in runs, tied for 5th with 3 doubles, led in home runs, led in RBI (two ahead of Archer Brookman), was 6th in slugging (between César Prieto and Jake Amos), tied Prieto for third in total bases and had the most total chances of anyone without an error. He had a commitment to attend the University of Miami, but let it drop in order to sign with the Red Sox for a reported bonus of $2.55 million.

He began his professional career in 2018 with the GCL Red Sox but played only 2 games, going 0 for 4 with a walk. In 2019, he spent most of the season with the Greenville Drive of the South Atlantic League, where he hit .254/.349/.472, with 25 doubles and 19 homers in 118 games, against much older competition. He received a late promotion to the Salem Red Sox of the Carolina League, where he went 3 for 7 with a double and a homer in 2 games. Before the 2020 season, he was ranked as the #70 prospect in baseball by Baseball America. However, he had to spend the year at Boston's alternate training site, as the minor league season was cancelled by the COVID-19 pandemic. Heading into 2021, his prospect ranking had improved to #47, again according to Baseball America.

He spent most of 2021 with the AA Portland Sea Dogs, playing 77 games there, in addition to 9 for the Worcester Red Sox in AAA. His summer was interrupted for a stint with the United States Olympic team at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics, which had been delayed by a year by the pandemic. He won a silver medal and was named the tournament,s All-Star first baseman after leading the games with 3 homers and 8 RBIs. He had also played in the 2020 Americas Olympics Qualifier held earlier that summer. In the minors, he batted .281/.389/.500 with 23 doubles and 12 homers in 86 games, and concluded his season by batting a scorching .372 in 21 games in the Arizona Fall League. In 2022, an injury in late May cost him two months of action with Worcester, but he did hit.273 in 72 games when healthy, banging 20 doubles and 11 homers. He was called up to Boston on September 4th and made his debut that day as the starting first baseman against the Texas Rangers, going 1 for 4 in a 5-2 win. He hit .197 in 27 games that season, with 5 homers, 12 RBIs and an OPS+ of 111.

Casas won the Red Sox's regular first base job in 2023 and although he got off to a rough start, hitting only .133 in April, he began to turn things around in May and in July won the first individual award of his career when he was named the American League Rookie of the Month. That month, he hit .349 with 7 homers and 13 RBIs as the Red Sox were playing better than anyone had anticipated and keeping their heads above .500 in the strongest division in the majors.

Notable Achievements[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

  • Manny Randhawa: "Red Sox close to signing top Draft pick Casas", mlb.com, June 10, 2021. [1]

Related Sites[edit]

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