Boston Red Sox fans are certainly hoping there's no place to go but up when it comes to Triston Casas. Through the first 18 games of the season, 16 of which Casas has appeared in, the first baseman is last on the team in WAR (-0.5) while slashing an abysmal .175/.242/.281 along with 18 strikeouts and only four walks in 61 plate appearances.
For a guy who came into the 2025 season after a rib injury stole most of last year from him and was going to be relied on at the heart of the Red Sox lineup as the clean-up hitter, that's unacceptable. Just one look at Casas's face, and you can tell he knows that. More importantly, though, the fans know that. And yet again even more important, it seems that manager Alex Cora also recognizes it.
In the series finale against the White Sox, Cora moved Casas down in the Red Sox lineup, pushing Wilyer Abreu into the No. 4 hole and moving the first baseman down to No. 6. It wasn't all fixed by that, however. Casas went 1-for-3 with a walk, a single and a grounded-into-double-play in his first game in that spot of the order, but followed that up with an abysmal 0-for-3 showing in a blowout loss to the Rays on Monday with two strikeouts.
After just two games, Cora is taking even more drastic measures with Casas in the Red Sox lineup.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the Discord to get the inside scoop between now and the MLB offseason.
Red Sox lineup moves struggling Triston Casas down again
The Red Sox released the lineup for Tuesday's matchup with Tampa Bay on the road, and Casas is no longer in the No. 6 spot, nor is he hitting clean-up. Instead, he's moved all the way down to No. 7 in the lineup.
Red Sox Lineup vs. Rays (April 15) |
|---|
1. Jarren Duran LF |
2. Rafael Devers DH |
3. Alex Bregman 3B |
4. Wilyer Abreu RF |
5. Trevor Story SS |
6. Kristian Campbell 2B |
7. Triston Casas 1B |
8. Ceddanne Rafaela CF |
9. Carlos Narvaez |
This is certainly a better course of action from Cora than to give first base to Romy Gonzalez over Casas, especially against a right-handed starting pitcher. He's not going to work out of this slump/funk/general malaise not getting into games as the starting first baseman. You could argue that's going to make things worse.
However, moving him down in the lineup gives him consistent at-bats but, ideally, without having him work through his issues by making bad outs in scoring opportunities for the Red Sox, which is what was happening in the clean-up spot. And even in the No. 6 hole, Kristian Campbell has arguably been the team's most consistent hitter, despite being a rookie, so having him move up also makes sense.
What stands out with Casas, in particular, is how much he needs these reps. While it's been infuriating to watch early in the 2025 season, it's also undeniable that he's a notoriously slow starter. Back in 2023 when he had a breakout campaign, he finished the year with a .263/.367/.490 slash line with 24 home runs and 21 doubles along with 126 strikeouts to 70 walks. In April of that season, however, he was abysmal with a .135 batting average, .528 OPS, two home runs and 20 strikeouts through his first 14 games.
Is that something that the Red Sox and fans desperately want to change moving forward? God, yes. However, it's a reminder that this is a long season with plenty of ebbs and flows, which applies to player performance as much as team performance. Casas, in his current form, might just be the embodiment of that, albeit with a predictable ebb or flow with early-season struggles.
Given that the Red Sox have stumbled out of the gate, Casas has been an easy and, perhaps, deserved scapegoat. This offense (and the pitching, and the defense) is struggling as a whole, though, beyond just the first baseman. The hope should be that the team turns it around and the same should be true with Casas. We can only then pray that Cora's lineup maneuvering plays a part in jumpstarting that.
feed