Boston Red Sox: 2018 MLB Draft recap day one
By Damian Dydyn
Boston Red Sox draft pick day one: Triston Casas – 1B/3B, American Heritage HS (FL)
We wrote up Triston Casas as part of our draft prep here. He’s a 6’4, 240-pound first baseman with absolutely bonkers level raw power. We’re talking Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton here. The ability to get to that power in the game is what makes Judge and Stanton so good, but that much raw power is still fairly rare and can’t be taught.
What Casas brings beyond the power is a plus arm, a solid but unspectacular glove and solid athleticism for a kid his size. The plus arm is actually why the Red Sox announced him as a third baseman.
He’ll almost certainly move to first eventually. But the team will apparently give him a chance to stick at the hot corner. As a pitcher in high school, he would hit 94 on the radar gun regularly. The ball will tear across the infield once he releases it.
He doesn’t have a quick release, though, so that particular plus tool won’t play up too much in game action. And the team will need a long term first baseman soon, while they already have a young third baseman in Rafael Devers. Not to mention two prospects who currently play there in Bobby Dalbec and Michael Chavis if Devers has to move to DH.
Will he sign?
It seems likely. Despite a commitment to the University of Miami, he was drafted roughly where he was predicted to. And the Red Sox may be willing to go over slot a little to get him inked. Plus, there is this tweet from Alex Speier:
Casas on his scholarship commitment to Miami: 'I like this fit. It's going to be hard for me to turn this down.'
— Alex Speier (@alexspeier) June 5, 2018
Nearly every pick in the first 10 rounds will sign. With the way the CBA works, teams don’t take a big risk on players who might not.
With their allotted bonus pools limited and each slot tied to the player drafted there, it’s a huge problem when one doesn’t sign. So the Red Sox almost certainly know what it will take to close the deal.
Kiley McDaniel of Fangraphs even tweeted that the Red Sox had an agreement in place with him before the selection was made. So it seems likely that it won’t take long for him to officially become a part of the Red Sox organization.