The Boston Red Sox have managed to complete just one major trade so far this offseason, acquiring ace left-handed starting pitcher Garrett Crochet from the Chicago White Sox. Even though the 2024 All Star was the most highly sought-after hurler on the trade market, the Red Sox executed the trade without giving up any of their top three prospects — or anyone off the Major League roster.
That includes 24-year-old, fourth-year first baseman Triston Casas, who has been perhaps the most frequent subject of Red Sox trade rumors over the past several weeks, all suggesting that Casas could be swapped for a frontline starting pitcher.
The Florida native has been linked to trades for the Houston Astros’ Framber Valdez, Luis Ortiz of the Pittsburgh Pirates and others.
Promo Image for Red Sox Mexico Games Omits Casas
In fact, ESPN’s longtime baseball analyst and insider Buster Olney suggested early in the offseason that the Red Sox must decide whether to trade Casas now, because with his injury history another shortened season for Casas could badly reduce his trade value in the future. Casas played only 63 games in 2024 due to a cartilage injury to his ribcage suffered in April, keeping him out of action until mid-August.
In early November, Red Sox Chief Baseball Officer Craig Breslow flatly denied that Casas was on the trade block.
“I’m not sure where that’s coming from,” Breslow said in early November. “Casas is a guy that we think has 40-home run potential. He’s young and also has a great strike zone discipline and controls an at-bat. We’re excited he’s on our team.”
But on Thursday, the Red Sox released an image that one former Boston player suggested may have been a cryptic message about Casas. Lou Merloni, the former Red Sox utility infielder who is now an analyst on both television and radio broadcasts for the franchise, posted the image with the comment, “Did anyone even notice who was missing??”
The post was a promotional image for the Red Sox trip to Monterrey, Mexico, coming up in March, 2025. Boston will close out its spring training schedule by playing two games there, against the Mexican Baseball League club Sultanes, a 10-time league champion franchise that was founded in 1939.
The Sultanes club also participates in the Mexican Pacific League, a winter baseball league whose 68-game schedule is currently underway.
Ex-BoSox Player Suggests Casas Absence Hints at Trade
The Red Sox promotional image depicted six of Boston’s top players: Rafael Devers, Jarren Duran, Brayan Bello, Wilyer Abreu, Ceddanne Rafaela and Tanner Houck. In answer to Merloni’s question, commenters on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter) quickly realized that the “missing” player was Casas — a possible hint that Casas will soon be traded and by the time of the Mexico trip in March will no longer be a Red Sox player.
“I’m sick. Can’t trade Casas,” one commenter wrote.
But other commenters suggested that because the post was promoting games in Mexico, the Red Sox simply included their top Latin players, plus Houck who was the Number One starter in 2024. However, Casas — though born in Miami — is arguably as much a Latin player as Duran.
Duran was born in California though his father is a native of Mexico and his mother is Puerto Rican. Casas was born in Miami, Florida, but his grandparents escaped Cuba in 1960 and immigrated to the United States.
