The Boston Red Sox, despite failing to finish over .500 every year since 2021 and placing last in the American League East in three of the past five seasons, enter the 2025 campaign with expectations running at their highest level in the team’s recent memory.
After an offseason graded “A” by such prominent sources as ESPN and The Athletic, the Red Sox are now predicted to win the American League East Division and go on to claim the overall AL pennant in a survey of 59 experts conducted by MLB.com.
For that matter, out of 14 MLB analysts and insiders who now work for the New York sports cable network SNY, eight picked the Red Sox to advance to the World Series â and two predict Boston to win it.
Big Midseason Changes Coming for Red Sox?
But none of that means the Red Sox are a finished product, and that there will not be some eye-opening changes to the team’s roster between Thursday’s Opening Day matchup against the Texas Rangers, and the end of the season â or even by the July 31 MLB trade deadline.
One of those shocking changes will be â at least according to Chris Mason, a sportswriter for the Boston-area media outlet MassLive â a trade of the Red Sox 2018 first round draft pick and most promising young power hitter, first baseman Triston Casas.
The 25-year-old Casas was the subject of repeated trade rumors in the offseason and at one point, according top media reports, was offered by the Red Sox in a deal for an American League pitcher. Other reports indicated that the pitcher Boston sought in exchange for Casas was Seattle Mariners starter Luis Castillo.
Why would the Red Sox want to trade Casas, who chief of baseball operations Craig Breslow has called “a guy that we think has 40-home run potential,” and who is currently on an $800,000 contract and not eligible for free agency until 2029?
A few possible reasons: the return to the lineup of Masataka Yoshida as a designated hitter, the role he fulfilled in 2024, could necessitate moving Rafael Devers back into the field â but with new acquisition Alex Bregman playing Gold Glove defense at third, first base would be the only landing spot for Devers. That would force the Red Sox to choose between their promising young power hitter and the franchise player who is now in only the second season of a 10-year, $313.5 million team-record contract.
Trade for Casas Brings Veteran Catching Help
Alternatively, the emergence of 2021 first-round pick, fourth overall, Marcelo Mayer at shortstop combined with a lingering back injury to incumbent shortstop Trevor Story could mean a move by the veteran to first, again making Casas expendable.
Who could come back in a deal for Casas? Another MassLive reporter, Chris Cotillo, on Tuesday predicted that “Boston acquires a catcher at the deadline, potentially Philadelphiaâs J.T. Realmuto.”
Could Realmuto, a three-time All-Star and key player in the Phillies’ 2022 run to the World Series, be the return for Casas? With Casas under three more years of team control, he would command a significant price, probably bigger than Realmuto who is 34 years old and in the final season of his five-year, $115 million deal with Philadelphia.
That means Realmuto would be a half-year “rental” for the Red Sox, and the Phillies would likely need to package him with at least a couple of top prospects to obtain Casas. At the same time, the Red Sox have not been satisfied with the level of defense played by catcher Connor Wong, so the Boston club may be motivated to go out and get a catcher of Realmuto’s caliber if they open to live up to the optimistic preseason predictions now greeting them.
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