The start of the 2025 MLB season has been a strange one for the Boston Red Sox. On one hand, Wilyer Abreu looks to be taking a monstrous leap, Kristian Campbell looks like he more than belongs at the MLB level and both of the team's main offseason acquisitions — Alex Bregman and Garrett Crochet — have lived up to the hype thus far.
On the other hand, the team is just 8-9 and several of its key players have underperformed. Rafael Devers got off to a historically bad start. Tanner Houck hasn't quite found his footing yet. The same can be said about Walker Buehler. Perhaps the most jarring slump, though, is with Triston Casas' bat.
Casas enters Monday's series opener against the Tampa Bay Rays slashing .185/.254/.296 with one home run and three RBI in 15 games played. He has a 51 WRC+, good for 153rd among 177 qualified hitters. He's been worth -0.4 fWAR, tying him for 164th among 177 qualified position players. Objectively, Casas has been one of the worst regulars in the game, and that's alarming.
It has gotten so bad, the Red Sox moved Casas out of the clean-up spot and into the No. 6 spot in their lineup in Sunday's game. Casas found himself in the same spot in Monday's contest. Red Sox fans wouldn't bat an eye had they seen the left-handed hitting Casas slot in a lower spot against a left-handed pitcher, but both of these matchups have been against right-handed pitchers.
Red Sox in Tampa:
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) April 14, 2025
Duran LF, Devers DH, Bregman 3B, Abreu RF, Story SS, Casas 1B, Campbell CF, Hamilton 2B, Narváez C
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Red Sox have no choice but to stick with Triston Casas
Casas getting off to a slow start is one thing, but it's been three weeks of these struggles, and it's not even as if he's been getting ridiculously unlucky. Casas ranks in the 24th percentile in average exit velocity and the 21st percentile in hard-hit rate according to Baseball Savant. It's not as if he's hitting into hard outs. He simply looks lost at the dish.
Given how bad he's looked, it would've been understandable for the Red Sox to, at the very least, contemplate looking elsewhere at first base for the time being. The problem, though, is that they don't really have another option.
Who else would play first base? Rafael Devers? Would they promote Vaughn Grissom, who has seen some time at first base in Triple-A? Would they play a guy like Romy Gonzalez there regularly? These options simply aren't any good.
At the end of the day, the Red Sox should ride or die with Casas. Not only are the other options underwhelming, but Casas is a player who, when right, is a legitimate middle-of-the-order bat. He was a Rookie of the Year finalist back in 2023 when he hit 24 home runs and drove in 65 runs. He missed much of last season, but still hit 13 home runs in 63 games.
When he's going right, Casas hits the ball hard and far consistently. While Red Sox fans haven't seen him do that this season, the team ought to stick with him so he can break out of this prolonged slump, especially without any ideal options behind him in the depth chart. It's painful now, but when Casas does get things turned around, watch out.