{"id":97773,"date":"2025-03-18T15:34:38","date_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:34:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/?p=97773"},"modified":"2025-03-18T15:34:38","modified_gmt":"2025-03-18T19:34:38","slug":"triston-casas-platoon-split-red-sox-first-base-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/18\/triston-casas-platoon-split-red-sox-first-base-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Manager Alex Cora Shuts Down First Base Platoon Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The last two times the Boston Red Sox faced ace left-handed pitchers\u2014on Saturday at home against reigning National League Cy Young winner Chris Sale of the Braves and Tuesday on the road against the New York Yankees&#8217; <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/10\/max-fried-yankees-eight-year-deal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">prized free-agent acquisition<\/a> Max Fried\u2014first baseman Triston Casas has been in the starting lineup. This wasn\u2019t a one-off decision, signaling a clear plan for Casas moving forward.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"75\" data-end=\"478\">Red Sox manager Alex Cora made it clear that Casas&#8217; role will remain consistent regardless of the pitcher, whether left-handed or right-handed.<\/p>\n<p data-start=\"75\" data-end=\"478\">&#8220;He will play. He&#8217;s going to play against lefties and rights,&#8221; Cora told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlb.com\/news\/triston-casas-expected-to-play-full-time-at-first-base-for-red-sox\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">MLB.com&#8217;s Ian Browne<\/a>. &#8220;We&#8217;re not going to platoon at first base.&#8221;<\/p>\n<h2 data-start=\"615\" data-end=\"759\">Red Sox First Baseman Triston Casas Locked in for Full-Time Duty<\/h2>\n<p>Cora&#8217;s decision underscores the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2024\/12\/30\/red-sox-triston-casas-strong-bounce-back-candidate\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">Red Sox&#8217;s commitment<\/a> to Casas&#8217; growth, offering him consistent playing time against both left- and right-handed pitchers. By sticking with Casas as an everyday player, the team aims to help him adjust to major league pitching and build confidence. This strategy reflects a long-term vision for Casas, ensuring he gains valuable experience without the disruption of platooning, which could be essential for his development moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>Casas certainly seemed to be embracing his new role, even after hitting an opposite-field home run against Sale in his first at-bat on Saturday.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-media-max-width=\"560\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Triston Casas hit an opposite field \ud83d\udca3 today off one of the toughest lefties in the game.<\/p>\n<p>Just sit back and enjoy the breakout.<a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/UUTyzlvBAv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/UUTyzlvBAv<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Eric Cross (@EricCrossMLB) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EricCrossMLB\/status\/1901042886012969301?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">March 15, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Casas Shows Slight Platoon Advantage Against Right-Handed Pitchers<\/h3>\n<p>Over his career, Casas has <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/2025\/03\/12\/red-sox-top-breakout-candidates\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">shown a clear distinction<\/a> in his performance based on pitching handedness. Against right-handed pitchers, he posted a .256\/.359\/.487 line with 35 home runs and 92 RBI in 657 plate appearances. Meanwhile, his numbers drop to .227\/.350\/.422 with seven home runs and 17 RBI in 183 plate appearances when facing opposite-handed pitchers. These figures reflect a more productive output against same-handed pitchers, which is consistent with his overall career splits.<\/p>\n<p>Casas&#8217; on-base percentage against left-handed pitchers indicates he has a solid understanding of the strike zone and strong plate discipline. However, to become a more well-rounded threat, he will need to find ways to unlock more consistent production against them. With his immense raw power and a growing toolkit, Casas is working to leverage every asset at his disposal, making himself a more dynamic threat from both sides of the plate. It will be key for his development moving forward.<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo: \u00a9 Eric Canha-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The last two times the Boston Red Sox faced ace left-handed pitchers\u2014on Saturday at home against reigning National League Cy Young winner Chris Sale of the Braves and Tuesday on the road against the New York Yankees&#8217; prized free-agent acquisition Max Fried\u2014first baseman Triston Casas has been in the starting lineup. This wasn\u2019t a one-off [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":97774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1071],"tags":[198,218,2021],"class_list":["post-97773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-redsox","category-mlb","tag-chris-sale","tag-max-fried","tag-triston-casas"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=97773"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97773\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97775,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97773\/revisions\/97775"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/97774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=97773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=97773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=97773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}