Red Sox prospect Triston Casas has the potential to be an all-round major league hitter who’s able to reach base at a high rate and slug.
Baseball America, which ranks him No. 15 on its top 100 prospect list, grades the first baseman’s power a 60 (plus). BA wrote, “He’s a potential impact hitter who could hit 30-plus home runs in the middle of their lineup.”
Casas was streaky with his power last year. He hit zero homers in 18 games during May at Double-A Portland. He just one homer in 18 games during August. But he crushed seven homers in 19 games in September between Portland and Triple-A Worcester.
Casas also showed his plus power at the Tokyo Olympics where he bashed three home runs in six games. All three of Casas’ homers put Team USA ahead.
“I’m still not done growing physically and mentally,” Casas said Wednesday when asked about his power on a Zoom call from Winter Warm-up came at JetBlue Park. “I think I still have a lot to fill out. Pretty much my whole career up until now, I’ve always chased on-base percentage as opposed to slugging percentage. Because I feel like on-base puts you in a good process to make contact, grind out at-bats, swing at good pitches. And I think that all leads toward the end result of wanting to slug, wanting to drive the ball. More importantly, to be a power hitter you shouldn’t have to try to hit home runs or try to make something happen.
“I know I’m plenty big and strong enough,” Casas added. “I’m 6-foot-5, I weighed in earlier this week at 265 (pounds) just rolling out of bed. So I know I’m plenty big enough, I’m plenty strong enough, I’m more than capable enough to tap into that power. It’s just a matter of if I’m swinging at the right pitches in the right counts and mentally I’m engaged on what I’m trying to accomplish in the box.
“That was one of the learning curves I went through last year, realizing it’s not a trickle-down effect the opposite way in terms of I’ll just go in there and start hitting, banging and then they’ll be afraid to pitch to me. It’s the opposite way around. They’re going to start nibbling, see how they can draw me off, see what I’ll chase, see what they can set me up with. If I don’t demonstrate a good discipline of the hitter’s zone, then I’ll be susceptible to those things. I realized once I started to be a little more patient, draw more walks and just stop swinging at fringe pitches and stay toward the hitter’s zone as opposed to the strike zone, I was a lot better off.”
Casas is expected to begin the 2022 season at Triple-A Worcester.
He finished 2021 by playing nine games at Worcester (.866 OPS). He batted .279 with a .394 on-base percentage, .484 slugging percentage, .877 OPS, 14 homers, 15 doubles, three triples, 63 runs and 59 RBIs in 86 games (371 plate appearances) between Portland and Worcester. He then went 29-for-78 (.372) with seven extra-base hits in 21 games in the Arizona Fall League.
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