One year after the Boston Red Sox traded former ace Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves straight up for infielder Vaughn Grissom, fans hated the trade. Sale cruised to the NL Cy Young while Grissom struggled in his brief time at the major-league level and even to a lesser degree in Triple-A. Now a month into the 2025 season, though, Grissom has a new position he's exploring and the potential to be the Red Sox's next first baseman.
The struggles of Triston Casas at the plate this season have been widely noted, and for good reason. He came into the season with fans hoping he'd secure the lineup as the clean-up hitter. Instead, he's been pushed down in the order to seventh after slashing just .185/.279/.315 entering Wednesday's clash with the Blue Jays.
That, naturally, has led to the Red Sox and, more specifically, fans to consider potential replacement options if Casas doesn't start to turn things around. And after Kristian Campbell's promotion on Opening Day to be Boston's second baseman, Grissom's initial position, the return in the Sale trade has been getting work at first.
He's also been raking, which can only make Casas' position that much more precarious.
Vaughn Grissom feels like the Red Sox next option if Triston Casas doesn't turn around
Grissom has been on a tear with the WooSox in Triple-A this season, spending some time at first base but moving around in somewhat of a utility role. Through 25 games, he's slashing .299/.376/.474 with three home runs, eight doubles and 23 runs scored. He's looked the part of what the Red Sox were hoping he'd be when they made the Sale trade, but now potentially at a position of need.
Now, it's not a guarantee that the Red Sox will need to move Casas off first base. He's been a notoriously slow starter in his young career but has shown signs of life recently, posting a 1.009 OPS over the last seven days entering Wednesday's game. If that continues, then Grissom will have to get another window of opportunity to jump through.
At the same time, the sample size of the 2025 season to this point has seen Casas struggle mighty for the majority of it and just recently start to show signs of life. If he regresses from this recent form, then we're going to be having discussions about potentially replacing him once again. Subsequently, if Grissom continues to stay hot in Triple-A, that will only put further pressure on Boston to consider making such a move.
What's for sure is that no one saw this season from Grissom coming after hitting sub-.200 in Boston last season and having an OPS nearly 100 points lower in Worcester than he does this season. But he's been a pleasant surprise. And if Casas doesn't show sustained improvement, he could also be a pseudo-savior for the bottom or middle of the Red Sox lineup.