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With trade rumors firmly behind him, Triston Casas has his eyes set on a huge 2025 season.
It was certainly an eventful offseason for the Boston Red Sox's 25-year-old first baseman. The Red Sox (led by Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow) were insistent that they weren't shopping him in trade talks, yet numerous reports throughout the winter pointed to the contrary.
But now that spring training is underway and Casas doesn't seem to be going anywhere, it's time for the young slugger to put any lingering injury concerns from 2024 to bed and prove he can be the middle-of-the-order bat the Red Sox need.
Throughout the winter, Breslow referenced Casas' potential to achieve a 40-homer, 120-RBI season--something only Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge did around Major League Baseball last year. The lefty doesn't need to attain those lofty figures to be a major piece for Boston, but that could catapult the team to new heights.
So how does Casas feel about Breslow's statements? It's not only a goal, he says. It's the expectation.
“I think that is the expectation for the first baseman of the Boston Red Sox. I think if I’m not able to do that, then I don’t deserve a job here,” said Casas, per Alex Speier of the Boston Globe. “I don’t feel that’s out of my reach. I feel like that’s something that’s very possible for me to accomplish.
“I appreciate [Breslow’s] vote of confidence in myself, but that is the caliber of hitter that I need to be to stay in this position that I am. I’ve put in plenty of work to be able to go out there and accomplish it, but it’s just a matter of staying healthy and being out there on the field for, say, 150-plus games. I think that it’s very reasonable.”
Speier also pointed out that in 222 career games, Casas has 42 home runs and 109 RBI--an average of 31 homers and 80 RBI per 162 games. But during his breakout second half in 2023, he hit 15 home runs and drove in 45 runs over 54 games, which eclipsed the 40/120 pace for a third of a season.
No one on the Red Sox seemingly expects more of themselves than Casas. In 2025, he'll have a full runway to show that all of those heightened expectations were installed with good reason.
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Jimmy Butler's In-Game Message to Buddy Hield Catches Attention
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