Casas has a left rib fracture. Transferred to the 60 Day IL on 4/27.
- Thread starter soxhop411
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Also regarding the use of RFsnyder... If for some reason O'Neill is unable to return as hoped tomorrow, this might have some bearing on RFsnyder's usage at 1B.
Yeah, there's a threshold in there somewhere for number of games missed by Casas that makes you pull the trigger on an acquisition. I'm not sure what they exact number is but that's kind of what I was getting at.
Baseball injuries aren't maybe their top priority? Maybe if Henry invested more in the team... [ducks]
On the pregame show on NESN on Saturday and Sunday, they showed O'Neil taking batting practice and laughing with the guys. I think Cora mentioned in his pre game presser that he was expected to play on Tuesday. Peter Abraham explained that O'Neil is suffering from "concussion symptoms" and not necessarily a concussion. To me that seems like semantics but can a doctor or medical professional explain the difference to this medical neophyte?
Yeah, I caught that as well. I think that may have been Sunday. But I think Cora also mentioned on Saturday that O'Neill was experiencing some light headedness. Hopefully he's past that.
@tylermilliken_
JulianMack with the latest on Triston Casas and the Red Sox plan moving forward: “Triston Casas underwent an MRI on his left rib cage strain Monday in Boston. And after further imaging, the expectation remains that he will be out for a while… The Sox will likely stand pat and not seek outside help, at least for now. A decent number of players around the league have May 1 opt-outs, and that could be a time when the Red Sox pursue some of their needs.” Doesn’t sound like Jared Walsh is coming to Boston.
JulianMack with the latest on Triston Casas and the Red Sox plan moving forward: “Triston Casas underwent an MRI on his left rib cage strain Monday in Boston. And after further imaging, the expectation remains that he will be out for a while… The Sox will likely stand pat and not seek outside help, at least for now. A decent number of players around the league have May 1 opt-outs, and that could be a time when the Red Sox pursue some of their needs.” Doesn’t sound like Jared Walsh is coming to Boston.
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If it's a matter of weeks and not months they could get by with internal options. Think I read that a grade 1 intercostal strain would be 2-3 weeks. I guess the concern is any type of fractured rib would make the timeline months.
This might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me, this is way too many injuries to their best players. Even with Devers & O'Neill expected back tomorrow.
This might be the straw that breaks the camel's back for me, this is way too many injuries to their best players. Even with Devers & O'Neill expected back tomorrow.
If Devers and O'Niell come back tomorrow and Pivetta comes back as expected, I think they can handle 2-3 weeks without Casas. If we're talking months before Casas can return, then yeah, I think it's time to explore external options or give Kavadas a shot.
Just for the sake of clarity, is this the diagnosis? I've not been able to find anything more that it being deemed a "significant injury" and that it looks like he will "blow past" the 10 days. https://www.cbssports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/red-soxs-triston-casas-mri-confirms-significant-injury/ Others who have chimed in here with similar tears or fractures have attested to how painful this type of injury is. By all reports Casas himself has said that he's dealing with a great deal of pain. There is virtually nothing that can be done for this sort of injury other than R&R. Once he's to the point of just being able to walk, sit, lay down or even take deep breaths without pain he's not very likely to start running or torquing his body as he would while swinging a bat right away. It's going to be a slow build up to get him anywhere near the point of taking part in any baseball activities and even then he's not likely to be rushed before they even discuss a rehab assignment. I'm surprised if he's back and fully operational inside of two months and not surprised at all if it takes considerably longer.
My expectation is that he'll return after the ASB. I'll be pleasantly surprised if it's before that. In the meantime, Kavadas and Refsnyder.
I'll hold you to this! But I still haven't heard anything other than SoSH speculation about either Kavadas and Refsnyder at 1B. Have I missed anything anywhere that was more official? If Devers is back I fear that Bobby D will be moved to 1B and I just can't imagine a world in which Reffy or Kavadas could be worse.
I think there's speculative happiness in getting back Devers, O'Neill, Grissom, Pivetta and Whitlock, and getting back Casas by the end of July at least.
ATM it seems that Dalbec and Reyes will get reps at first. Cora sees Dalbec as the better defender at 3rd which is why Reyes started at 1B on Sunday. I think what we've seen thus far has been due to a very short reactive time and an equally short bench. I think Cora will need a bit of time to reassess his limited options and figure things depending on how Raffy and O'Neill respond in the next few days.
https://www.masslive.com/redsox/2024/04/with-triston-casas-hurt-who-will-play-first-base-for-the-red-sox.html
RFsnyder spent time learning how to play 1B in spring training to make him more versatile.
https://www.si.com/mlb/red-sox/news/red-sox-outfielder-reportedly-learning-new-position-to-earn-more-playing-time-scott7
There definitely is. A world where Abreu continues hitting and you have him, Refsnyder, O'neill, and Duran as your outfielder is pretty nice. Yoshida has been coming on the last few weeks after a rough start, and an infield with Devers, Grissom, and Casas eventually returning could be pretty great too. So SS is going to be an offensive black hole, but the Catchers are hitting well so far, so a lineup with only one real hole in it could look really good. The best possible outcome looks real good.
From the article, " Refsynder has 36 appearances at first base in his career for a total of 227 innings but hasn't played the position since 2020."
Still seems like the best possible solution if O'Neill is back in the lineup. Even if he's Dalbec 2021/22 level bad at 1B, his offense- even as weak as it can be against RHPs is still a better aggregate player there than Bobby. Wouldn't need any 40-man roster moves either, right?
I'm fine with Ref and Dalbec getting at-bats, but I'd really like to limit their exposure against right-handed pitching. With the exception of a nice stretch in 2022, Ref has been terrible against right-handed pitching for his entire career.
Heineman still has options, so I think it still makes sense to send him down and promote Kavadas or otherwise find somebody to fill that role. Dalbec and Ref getting tons of at-bats against RHP is just not going to work for two-three months, if that's how long Casas is going to be out. There's plenty of positional flexibility on the roster; they can afford to have Kavadas starting against RHP.
The only reason they wouldn't, I guess, is so they don't start the clock on Kavadas... but that seems kind of silly, given how limited his role will probably be regardless.
Heineman still has options, so I think it still makes sense to send him down and promote Kavadas or otherwise find somebody to fill that role. Dalbec and Ref getting tons of at-bats against RHP is just not going to work for two-three months, if that's how long Casas is going to be out. There's plenty of positional flexibility on the roster; they can afford to have Kavadas starting against RHP.
The only reason they wouldn't, I guess, is so they don't start the clock on Kavadas... but that seems kind of silly, given how limited his role will probably be regardless.
ATM there are no 40 man roster moves to make. I do think at some point the 40 man needs to be addressed, but unless we see a greater urgency to address the Casas injury I don't see too much happening there as we may see the likes of Mayer, Anthony and/or Teel moved there later in the season. Maybe they determine that Hamilton is not a major league defender and move him in favor of someone else once Grissom is back.
The grade 1 intercostal strain is a best-case scenario guess on my part, it probably isn't that at this point.
What a brutal update.
Are we really going to hand AB's to Dalbec? Is that the best the organization can do?
Are we really going to hand AB's to Dalbec? Is that the best the organization can do?
There's still no formal update today... just Julian McWililams' reporting (which I couldn't even find a first-hand tweet of). Let's wait and see.
At this exact moment, yes. Do you have an alternate plan that fits the moment?
But whatever they are going to do, it makes absolutely zero sense to have Heineman on the 26-man roster. Where would his at bats come from? There are enough fungible players on the 40-,man -- including Heineman himself -- and a Kavadas, Sogard, Westbrook, Meidroth, even Hickey -- would be more useful.
I'm assuming O'Neill coming off 7 day is where you see Heineman leave the 26 man. Anything beyond that would need to be addressed with a 40 man move
The only reason heineman was on the 26 is he was the only person eligible to be there.
Agreed, we'll probably learn more when Cora talks to the reporters pregame today, which I think is usually around 4pm?
This is fair in the short term, but as we know Refsnyder has a career .222/.298/.319 slash vs. RHP.
Again, in the short-term, he and Dalbec are warm bodies who can field the position and hit LHP. But given that it looks like Casas is out 2+ months, I will be baffled if the Red Sox don't reach out to Brandon Belt (who had an OPS near .900 vs RHP last season, slashing .256/.375/.515) or CJ Cron (no meaningful split, but decent all around).
There is speculation they are waiting until May 1, when many guys under minor league deals have opt outs. Ji-man Choi is an interesting name, he's currently on the Mets' AAA team, not hitting at all but high walk rate in a small sample (163/321/186). OPS+ of 69 last year in 117 PA, but 231/344/397 in 724 PA from 2021-2022. Not exciting but we may be in least-bad-option territory. I'd happily take him over Dalbec.
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I've seen that, and Choi's not bad vs RHP, but are there other interesting names? More to the point, are any of them likely to approach Belt's .900 OPS vs RHP?
Probably nobody that would like Belt, but they could all start tonight as opposed to Belt who would need a long ramp up.