Craig Breslow pushes back against Triston Casas trade rumors
"I’m not sure where that’s coming from."
Speaking at the Red Sox’ season-ending press conference in September, team president Sam Kennedy stressed that Boston would leave no stone unturned as it tried to improve its roster this offseason.
“I think it’s more likely that every avenue will be explored,” Kennedy said. “I can tell you this ownership group feels urgency and hunger to explore every avenue to improve and build upon this team to get back into the postseason.”
Boston does have a stacked prospect pipeline that teams would covet — headlined by blue-chip talents Marcelo Mayer, Roman Anthony, Kristian Campbell, and Kyle Teel.
But the Red Sox also have several intriguing trade chips already present on their big-league roster — like slugging first baseman Triston Casas.
While Boston ideally would want to keep a player like Casas in place for the long haul, dealing him for another impact player — especially a top-of-the-rotation pitcher — could be an avenue Craig Breslow and Boston’s top brass explore this winter.
Casas himself even acknowledged that he’s entering this offseason with some uncertainty, even if the 24-year-old infielder won’t officially hit free agency for at least another couple of years.
“I think that the team and the organization should continue to strive for a championship whether I’m in the plans or not,” Casas told The Boston Globe’s Julian McWilliams last month. “I don’t know what the front office has in store for this offseason in terms of restructuring the roster to try to become a playoff team.
“I want to be a part of the plans to make that happen, but if not, and they want to seek an outside source for me to try to bolster the roster, that’s well within their ability.”
But speaking this week at MLB’s GM meetings in San Antonio, Breslow pushed back against the assertion that Casas will be dangled out on the market as a trade chip this winter.
“I’m not sure where that’s coming from,” Breslow said Tuesday, per MassLive.com’s Chris Smith. “Casas is a guy that we think has 40-home run potential. He’s young and also has a great strike zone discipline and controls an at-bat. We’re excited he’s on our team.”
Even with a down season in 2024 where he dealt with injuries, Casas’ discipline, power at the plate, age, and team control could make him the type of trade chip that shores up another area of the roster for Boston.
Back in September, The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal mapped out a scenario where the Red Sox trade Casas for a starting pitcher, shift Rafael Devers over to first base and then sign a power-hitting third baseman in free agency like Alex Bregman or Willy Adames.
Such a shift in the infield would allow Boston to replace some of the pop lost via a Casas trade while adding a much-needed starter.
But speaking on Monday, Breslow stressed that the Red Sox have not had talks with Devers about shifting over to first base.
“No, the conversations I’ve had with Raffy to date have largely just been about checking in and making sure that he’s got everything he needs, seeing how he’s feeling,” Breslow said. “Any conversation that we would have about that is going to happen internally before it goes external.
“At the same time, we saw progress on the defensive side. And it’s unclear to what extent the knees and the shoulders impacted his ability to defend at third. But what we’re after is putting a winning team on the field. And we’ll have conversations as needed, as things go, but as of right now that’s no where we are.”
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