The Red Sox are set to sign first-round corner infielder Triston Casas to a $2,552,800 bonus, which is full slot value for his pick (26th overall), Evan Drellich of NBC Sports Boston reports. The deal is pending a physical.
The 18-year-old Casas, a high school star from Florida, was anywhere from the 20th- to 48th-best prospect in the draft, according to MLB.com, Baseball America, ESPN’s Keith Law and FanGraphs. MLB.com, the outlet with the highest opinion of Casas, noted entering the draft that the lefty-swinger’s “all about his bat and the power he can produce with it.” Casas packs a wallop when he puts the bat on the ball, though there are some questions about his ability to make contact. Defensively, while Casas currently plays third base and has an impressive arm, he’s likely headed for first, per MLB.com.
The fact that Casas will sign with the Red Sox means he won’t attend the University of Miami, where he had committed. Boston left quite an impression on him during a pre-draft visit, Drellich relays.
“It was a great experience going to Boston,” Casas said. “It was my first time in Boston and in Massachusetts, so I really enjoyed my time there, I really loved the city and I love the build of it and I love the way that Fenway fit right in the middle of it, just like another building. I’m really excited and I can’t be more happy with the way [the draft] turned out. I feel like the park suits my swing well, and hopefully I get up to the big-league club soon and make an impact.”
Nice, we really needed to start adding back to the minor league depth… I wonder where he will rank in comparison to Chavis and Groome this time next year.
I would guess he would be like #3 or #4. Chavis and Casas would be power bats for Sox pretty soon.
Did you read the assessment on Casas?
Power bat, “when he makes contact”
Jackie Bradley jr. has a tremendous power bat as well, when he makes contact.
Hopefully with instructions, he’ll mature as a hitter. JBJ made it to the bigs on his glove, with everyone hoping is bat developed. Even with a good arm, the talk of moving Casas to 1B does not bode well for his defense. That said Wade Boggs and Jim Rice turned into good fielders with practice and dedication.
I don’t think anyone is saying JBJ has “tremendous” power
Okay I picked the wrong name plug-in Chris Davis then. Has tremendous power, when he makes contact.
I thought the Red Sox pretty religiously, and have never heard the words “Tremendous power bat” In all the years he’s been with us, could you be trolling?
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Birks, I’ve been a big Sox fan since 78.
I’m just saying the 1st or 2nd post is putting this guy number three in our system because when he makes contact he has tremendous power. “He has trouble making contact though.” That’s all I’m saying.
The kid is just out of high school Gary, yet because of the Ks you’re ready to say he was a bad sign already??
Trout used to strike out a ton too when he came into the league… if we want to continue with ridiculous player comparisons.
You just killed your own argument right there. Take a seat on the bench.
What I said Triumph, is that you can’t plug a guy in as our number 3 Prospect without knowing what you have, especially with his Scouting Report. Give the kid a chance and don’t put so much pressure on him. He’s going to be fine.
Honestly… to plug a guy in as the #3 prospect in the Sox system without knowing a ton about him, says more about the system than anything. With all the graduating prospects in the last couple of years, and recent trades Dombrowski has made…. the farm has weakened a ton.
Does anyone do a public signings tracker for all teams?
MLB.com does, but it looks like they aren’t updating it until the team officially announces it.
mlb.com/draft/tracker
The Red Sox don’t need any more guys that are big hitters who can’t field. There are only 2 spots on the starting roster for guys with those sklls … DH and 1B. Because we have a 3B who can’t field and throws terribly we need a gold glover at 1B like Moreland to handle Devers bad throws. Lucky for us Moreland is hitting great!! Devers can’t be our future at 3B so he either moves to 1B and learns how to scoop or he’s a 22 year old DH. For all of you Dever lovers, help me out, if a guy is a butcher on ground balls, has weight issues at 21, can’t throw across the diamond accurately and can’t adjust when major league pitchers figure out that he’ll swing at anything as long as he can swing hard to try and be the hero of the team, where should he play? 3B and hurt our defense, 1B or DH? He was the top prospect in our system a year ago and he can’t field, can’t throw and can’t hit!! Next time someone says let’s trade our top prospect spend more time focused on their real skills and less on their hype. I suggested trading him last year when he was hot for Donaldson in hopes we could resign Donaldson. Donaldson has had a bad year this year but he hasn’t hurt his team as much as Devers has hurt ours because he hasn’t played as much. Trade Devers and Calas and lets get somebody serviceable to play 3B. Lots of candidates out there. Donaldson’s value is extremely low right now so it’s time to buy. I suggested Suarez last time I was on the site because his salary is 2.5M but he’s doing well so folks said they wouldn’t trade him to get a prospect like Devers. It’s not too late to ride on what Devers did last year because it’s not likely to ever happen again. At some point we need to realize that most folks aren’t like Betts, Benintendi and Bogaerts, they can come up and perform for a short while and then they fail and can’t recover from it like Middlebrooks, Panda and even Moncada. Devers now needs a new location if he is to ever hope to be the player he appeared to be when he came up. If Casas can be a great defensive 1B, great!! We need power bats in the line-up. If he’s another DH of the future, trade him while he has value.
I think it’s too early to tell whether he can be a replacement for Moreland down the road but if he can hit and play 1B well, I’ll be in his corner until he gets to the bigs. What I don’t want to see is another below average 3B who shows signs of progress on his defense coming to the majors to crush our chances for winning. Over the first two months Devers has as many errors as the rest of the regulars all together!!
Management needs a wake-up call on Devers. A division winning team can’t have a guy who can’t hit, can’t field and can’t throw playing 3rd base!! Play Holt there until you figure it out!! He’s hitting .100 higher and won’t have as many errors..
Wow really glad you aren’t the GM of the Red Sox. Devers is 21 cmon man he has much better on defense lately and is surprisingly agile. He has elite bat speed and just has to adjust to the pitchers adjusting to him. I believe he will and be an outstanding offensive player and probably be defensively average for the next few years. Give the kid a little time before you trash him.
Couldn’t agree more Bruin. I don’t think you can call him a detriment considering that the Red Sox have the most wins in baseball. Let the kid develop and find his swing. He started off slowly last year in the minors too but really caught fire around this time. He’s hit at every level, has a strong arm and good approach. He just needs more reps. Bogaerts had similar issues and no one was screaming for him to get traded.
Agree with Bruin here on Devers.
But saying “I think it’s too early to tell whether he can be a replacement for Moreland down the road but if he can hit and play 1B well, I’ll be in his corner until he gets to the bigs.” has to be the biggest understatement of the year KD.
No – Casas most likely will not be a replacement for Moreland… because even if the kid goes through the minors quickly, he probably won’t make his ML debut until the 2022 season. He may become Devers replacement at 1B by then… or a FA replacement who they have yet to sign.
Let the buildup begin now.
Bruin1012 and Poundsy24 – Nothing would make me happier than to see Devers turn out to be a star. I’d gladly eat crow on my statements but I think you are drinking the coolaid right now. He’s 21 but look at his body and the shape he keeps himself in, if that’s not a red flag I don’t know what is. Also, the rap on him was he was a weak defender then in double AA his coach loved him so he pronounced his defense as much better. It wasn’t good it was simply much better. He has roughly half the Red Sox errors and I hold my breathe on every ball hit to him.
Giving him time is a great idea but not at the MLB level. That’s exactly why there is a minor league system. So coaches can tell hitters to stop trying to be the hero and put the ball in play. Swing as hard as you can at pitches you can hit. All those baseball lessons got skipped or ignored by Devers. Strong but wild arm is more accurate than strong arm. No lateral movement, no baseball acumen as to when to cut in front of Bogaerts (who is an excellent defensive player), no baseball acumen for which base to throw to, no speed to cover the bunt or half hit ball and no ability to cover the line on a hard smash down the line to prevent late inning doubles. Lots of liability for the pitchers to absorb and yes great record suggests he might not be hurting them or MAYBE they are just so good that they are winning despite him!! Bogaerts was nothing like Devers when he came up. He was a SS asked to play 3B. Devers is a 3B asked to play 3B. Bogaerts’ plate discipline wasn’t great but it was better than Devers because when he went for a pitch off the strike zone he often put it in play and got bloop hits or opposite field hits. Devers simply strikes out.
If you truly believe Devers has the talent to play 3B that’s great, I think fans should believe in their players but his talent has not arrived and I give it a very low percentage chance of arriving if he stays in the bigs and keeps failing. Will Middlebrooks II will be his destiny.
Chavis was always the better defender and until Devers had success with his “all or nothing at all” approach to hitting in the minors Chavis was our next in line for 3B. With the suspension one can only guess that he saw what Devers was doing with his out of control approach to hitting and decided to improve his chances of beating him out by using steroids. I don’t believe this is uncommon in baseball.
Launch angle and a juiced ball have allowed guys like Devers to get to the MLB before his time. If he is ‘legitimately’ stronger than Chavis and swings for the fences on every pitch with no repercussions for striking out it is easy to see why fans like him. He’s got hero syndrome. He lives for the stardom. Unfortunately, baseball is a team sport and teams need guys who can do more than strike out or homer. They need to play defense, base run and throw accurately.
I hope you guys are right and at age 22 Devers turns into the guy you think he will be. Vegas puts the odds near that of the White Sox winning the world series this year!!
Just remember, the great record is despite what he is doing not because of what he is doing!!! Brock Holt would be a huge step up at 3B and he’s not a good 3B!!!
KD if you look at fangraphs they don’t think that Devers has been that bad defensively. The eye test watching just about every game this year says he is improving rapidly on defense. He is definitely much quicker then what his body looks like. I think you are just way off on Devers I think he sticks at third and becomes a quality third baseman. Most of his errors were earlier in the season with Haney at first who was a terrible defensive first baseman.
I do agree on one thing with you KD and that is Xander is a very good defensive short stop.
Another thing KD you do realize that Michael Chavis strikes out way more then Devers does. Devers hit tool is way higher then Chavis the only thing that Chavis was on par with Devers is power. Devers will cut his k rate down he is a far better talent then Chavis and was always considered to that.
Bruin012 – Clearly you like Devers and I hope you are right about him. I’m not as optimistic as you are. I watch nearly every game and I’m not seeing your improvement. I see a guy with no lateral movement, no ability to charge bunts or topped balls rolling up the third base line, I see a guy who makes bad decisions on which base to throw to and I see a guy who airs it out more than he should. Blaming his errors on Hanley is ridiculous. Counting the number of errors he didn’t get because of Moreland being so good makes much more sense. Most 1Bs wouldn’t be able to keep Dever’s errors down like Moreland.
Numbers are great for making arguments for a player. They can be taken out of context very easily and quoting statcast info should augment ones opinion on a player not be the basis of your beliefs. I look at his body at 21 and say he is a Panda waiting to happen. I watch him move to his left and right and realize his first step is not good, heck he hasn’t even figured out which foot he should stride with when the ball is to his left. Does statcast show that in their numbers? How many half hit balls has he fielded cleanly and got the guy at first? My guess from watching games is that best case it might be 20%. I know checking the box score that I see way too many infield hits to 3B.
If you see improvement, great. I still see a slow guy who doesn’t have soft hands, doesn’t throw accurately when on the run, who can’t charge half hit balls, can’t cover the line late in games and looks 25 pounds over-weight at age 21. Is that the description of a guy who is likely to last at 3B going forward? Your answer to me was he is improving and should be fine.
I think we disagree.
Triumph13 – I hope you are right that the Red Sox are willing to keep a first round pick in the minors that long. He is 18 in 18 so 22 in 22. Four years in the minors for a number 1 pick. That would be great but realistically, would Red Sox management keep an outstanding player in the minors four years? Mediocre yes but an outstanding one? They’ve rushed so many to the bigs in recent years that it wouldn’t surprise me to see him as a call-up in Sept of 2020. I hope you are right and he gets the right amount of prep time in the minors so he can come up and stick with the club and be productive throughout his career. More like Benintendi than Devers.
Four years in the minors for a #1 pick isnt that crazy… if that pick is coming out of high school. Chavis is in his 4th year – and if not for the suspension he might have gotten a late callup this year. Devers got the call to Boston 4 years after he signed with the Sox, as did Bogaerts (granted these two were IFAs and also 16 when signed).
Benintendi got a very early callup after he was drafted as a first rounder- but he was also about to turn 21 when he was drafted.
I can see you don’t think much about Devers KD – and I can agree somewhat when it comes to his fielding. I think he will move to 1B in a year or two (unless he drastically improves at 3B of course before then). And you ARE right with his hitting struggles this year too… he’s constantly trying to pull the ball and looks like he’s swinging for the fences every at bat. But these last few years in the minors (and last year in Boston), he wasn’t that guy. He hit the ball all over the field. To say Brock Holt would be an upgrade at 3B is crazy talk to me… Devers was called up last year because the Sox were a black hole offensively at 3B – Holt included. Holt should replace Nunez before Devers. I can see Devers breaking out of this slump, and getting his average up to over .260 by the end of the year.
Triumph13 – I hope you are right about Devers but I think you are being hard on Holt. He had a bad year last year and has come back and has done well this year. His energy is better than Nunez so if Peddy can’t come back soon maybe he plays 2B but can we really compete for the division with a 3B that fields as badly as Devers? Lets say he bounces back in hitting (he had a homer today but he did K on a pitch 3 feet outside after the HR) I am more comfortable defensively if we use him at DH, put JD in left, Benny in right, Betts at 2B so Cora doesn’t have to rest him once a week and Holt at 3B. That’s how bad I think Devers is at 3B!!
What’s your take on the number of days off Cora is giving? If you give a starter 2 days off a month they end up playing 150 games. That seems low for a superstar player but a rookie manager makes those kinds of mistakes. Right now he’s given JD, Benny and even Devers the most playing time and it ends up being roughly 150 games if he keeps his rest schedule.
I like 2 days a month off for guys in May through August but I’m not keen on that much off time in April and September. April has rain-outs all the time so those games usually end up in the four middle months of the season. Why play 5 less games than scheduled in April and keep your 2 days off policy? To me, it makes no sense. A rookie manager mistake. You don’t get those at bats back later in the year. So he rests Betts too much in April then he loses him in May. Perfect example of why you don’t give days off when the schedule is not packed in the first month of the year and there are rain outs.
I also don’t like 2 days in September because you are in a divisional race. One day off is fine but to me 2 only works if you have a huge lead. I doubt we will be in the lead in September but I bet Cora stays on his 2 day a month rest plan.
As a Yankee hater it’s hard to admit but I always admired Girardi for being able to get a bunch of very average players to compete way over their heads. If we beat the Yankees and win the Division it will because they lost their magic when Girardi left. Boone to me is every bit as over-matched for the job as Cora. With Girardi those years with an old Jeter and post Jeter were some pretty terrible teams yet they competed for the division. I could never explain how a guy like Sanchez meanders through the minors when he’s supposed to be a superstar in the making then after everyone has almost given up on him he gets promoted and is a montster, unlike anything he did in the minors. How does Judge go from the next Dave Kingman to King Kong? How does a scrawny DidI Gregorious go from a utility infielder to a home run hitting Yankee? It was almost magical and certainly not predictable. What changed the way these guys had played? Steroids aside, I think it was Girardi. Whatever he did in the clubhouse or on the field seemed to get these guys to over perform year after year. That is the only reason I think we have a chance to beat them this year in the division race. I think Boone will hurt them worse than Cora will hurt us. From a talent standpoint, if both teams are healthy there isn’t much of a difference. We have better starters and they have better relievers. They have bigger guys who hit longer homers and we have smaller guys who hit homers and doubles throughout the line-up. Their park gives you the illusion of them being great hitters but anyone can homer in a little league ballpark.
I’m curious to hear your take on Girardi and Cora. I would be happy to have Girardi as our manager next year and move Cora to coaching where I think he excels. How about you?.
Interesting, your take on Betts going to 2B. I wonder if Betts had a choice of where to play… which position he would pick? As you probably know he came up as a solid defensive 2B, but with Pedrioa signed long term he was moved all over the OF. I wonder if all that movement has in any way affected his wanting to sign an extension with the Sox, or even his not agreeing (and later winning) in arbitration. For Betts to stay in Boston long term, the Sox May have to go to him and ask that question sometime in the next couple years.
Bottom line, your proposed Sox in the field isn’t bad… but I’m not sure Benny has the arm for RF, and if you put Devers at DH, you are basically giving up on his career in the field. It seems you are fine with that… but if you think he’s bad at 3B now, how do you think he will be playing when he’s there on Holts days off?
As for your other questions..
I agree with you on the number of days off Cora has been giving. I’m not sure what is going on behind the scenes and if these players are asking for games off…. but to me it’s too many. Possibly part of that was trying to fit in ABs when Hanley was still there – so will be interesting how the next month or two pans out.
Honestly, it’s hard to nitpick Cora’s
and Boone’s decision so far…
Both teams are on pace to win well over 100 games this year. And no chance the Sox would ever bring in Girardi, especially after Cora’s first year as manager most likely brings that many wins. Will be interesting to see what both teams do before the trade deadline this year… Sox really can’t do much because they don’t have the prospect depth…. and truthfully, I don’t want to see Dombrowski trade assets for another middle reliever. If Yanks go and trade for a guy like DeGrom, you’d have to give them the advantage for the division… unless Price can continue to pitch like a #2.
Glad you brought up DeGrom. Wouldn’t the Mets LOVE to trade him to the archrival of the Yankees? We could give them EROD who has a bright future, we could give them Devers too. We would obviously be way over the luxury tax lines BUT in the off season we could trade Price to LA or the Cubs or someone in need of a top of rotation left=handed starter. Next year, with Sale and DeGrom as our 1/2 we’d be better than this year and cheaper. We’d still have Porcello, Wright and Pomerantz to fill out the rotation and our budget would be cut from this year.
I really like DeGrom and if the Red Sox don’t get him I’d hope for the Cubs to get him. I think the Lester, Darvish, Hendricks starting staff would look far better with DeGrom as the 1. Like Price, they could deal Darvish in the off season to make back some money.
Arizona is a tough team to figure out but DeGrom in Arizona with Greinke would certainly make the West very interesting this year and going forward.
Personally, I would fire any GM that traded DeGrom. Trade Syndergaard he only gets a couple a dozen starts a year and his name is much bigger than his value.
I would think the Mets wouldn’t mind trading DeGrom to the Yanks for a guy like Torres, KD.
Where you aren’t a fan of Devers, that trade of he and Erod seems like a no brainer for DeGrom. What an awesome addition he would give to the rotation in Boston.
Personally, I just don’t think I would pull that trigger if I am Dombrowski… Long term, the team would stay very expensive… and the luxury tax implications get so much worse the more consecutive years your team surpasses it. I also don’t think nearly as high as you do about Holt. I think hes a perfect utility guy for the Sox… he can play numerous positions adequately enough to give a guy a rest or a DL stint…. and the dropoff at the plate ..isn’t a killer with the surrounding players.
Also – trading Price wouldn’t be as easy as you mention…. unless the Sox agree to eat between $40M to $60M in the process. Doing that hurts their chances to fill that slot in the rotation… and after next year, Sale & Porcello’s spots will need to be filled as well (or resigned). Even teams with high payrolls need young inexpensive guys to supplement the free agent signings. Just my opinion.
Agree with your other takes… except that I think at this point, Syndergaard has proven that he is injury prone. Hed still fetch a lot in a trade, but not as much as DeGrom… even with him having an extra year.
As if I needed extra motivation to hate the Red Sox…in addition to being a Yankees fan I’m also an alum of the University of Miami []_[]. Just more fuel for the fire