After a season of changes, Triston Casas is a finalist for American League Rookie of the Year.
Six Red Sox gamers have received the award because the league adopted the accolade in 1947: Dustin Pedroia (‘07), Garciaparra (‘97), Fred Lynn (‘75), Carlton Fisk (‘72), Don Schwall (‘61), and Walt Dropo (‘50). Casas is the organization’s first ROY finalist since Andrew Benintendi in 2017.
Much like Pedroia’s ROY season, Casas bought off to a gradual begin after making his first Opening Day roster. On June 13, he was hitting .197 with a .683 OPS, having collected 36 hits in his first 59 video games of the yr. At least publicly, Alex Cora wouldn’t entertain the opportunity of sending him again right down to Triple-A.
Between the next day and season’s finish, Casas, hit .312 with a .982 OPS, and 76 hits over his final 72 video games. Overall, he completed the yr at .263/.367/.490 over 132 video games, with 113 hits, 21 doubles, 24 residence runs, 66 runs, and 65 RBI. As he started figuring it out, his supervisor made the Pedroia comparability greater than as soon as.
Casas additionally made a major impression on one of many earlier Red Sox winners.
“He made one of the larger adjustments I’ve seen,” Fred Lynn instructed the Herald by telephone on Monday. “He started to go the other way consistently, and what that allows you to do is see the ball longer. He started hitting the ball the other way, and all of a sudden, his average just took off, just going up, and up, and up, and he became a really tough out. I saw him hit home runs, not only to left field, down the left-field line, which is outstanding for a left-handed hitter at Fenway Park.”
“It was nice to see somebody in the Major Leagues make an adjustment, because I see a ton of them just do the same thing over, and over, and over,” the nine-time All-Star stated with a chuckle. Two offseasons in the past, Lynn went viral on X (then Twitter) for calling out gamers who complained about defensive shifts. “I believe they shifted on Ted Williams and didn’t he hit 406?” the 1979 AL batting title-holder identified in a very memorable tweet.
“I’m on my soapbox here,” he laughed, “but I’m really happy that he made that adjustment, because a left-handed hitter at Fenway that can go the other way can do a lot of damage. And I really expect him to actually hit more for a better average as he gets a little bit more comfortable and figures things out.”
Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson and Guardians pitcher Tanner Bibee are Casas’ competitors for the award, although Lynn thinks it is going to come right down to Casas and Henderson.
“It’s hard for (pitchers) to win that award, unless your team just blows people away,” he opined. “It’s really difficult to garner those kinds of votes because you don’t pitch every day. You’re out there one of every five if you’re a starter, maybe in today’s game. An everyday player definitely has an edge on a pitcher, just because of the amount of games that you play and the amount of influence you have on your team.”
How a lot did Casas affect the Red Sox this yr? He led the workforce in walks, on-base share, and OPS. He performed the fifth-most video games, however completed with the fourth-most RBI and second-most residence runs on the roster. He’s the fifth participant in franchise historical past to hit at the least 24 residence runs of their rookie season earlier than turning 24, and the primary since Garciaparra in his personal ROY season.
Casas additionally joined Ted Williams as the one two Red Sox gamers underneath 24 to achieve 24 residence runs and 70 walks of their rookie season. “70 walks, that’s impressive, too,” Lynn stated. “It’s probably more than I had!”
Indeed, he collected 62 free passes in 145 video games – a ten.3-percent stroll charge – throughout his personal ROY marketing campaign. This yr, Casas drew walks at a 13.9-percent clip.
Unfortunately, he additionally performed on the last-place 2023 Red Sox, and people collective outcomes usually have a method of impacting these particular person awards.
“The O’s won a hundred games, right? So that’s going to carry some weight, unfortunately for Triston,” Lynn stated. “But he made just a tremendous adjustment. Whether he wins the award or not, the fact that he’s up in the voting means a lot. I expect big things from him now on.”
Lynn’s ROY season was a special story. The 1975 Red Sox went all the best way to Game 7 of the World Series, solely to lose to the Cincinnati Reds, extending Boston’s championship drought. For their rookie, his particular person achievement simply days later was small comfort.
“I was so upset that we lost the World Series,” he stated. “Having won three NCAA titles at USC, I won the Triple-A World Series, so I was used to winning. When you get to the big game, I hadn’t lost one. So, when we got to Game 7 and lost in the fashion that we did, it took me, well I don’t think I ever got over it, really, but a very long time to get that out of my head.”
“When the awards started coming out, you thank your teammates, you’re happy to receive the award, but it was just a big ‘ol hole for me, because WE didn’t win,” he added. “It took many years for me to realize that what I had accomplished my first year, no one had ever done it. It took me quite a while to just enjoy the fact that I did it.”
Lynn hasn’t had an opportunity to talk with Casas one-on-one, however he had two items of recommendation for him.
First: “Just make contact!”
“Max Muncy with the Dodgers, and (Kyle) Schwarber for the Phillies, they both hit like, .200, but do a lot of damage with home runs,” he defined. “So what that tells you is that when they make contact, really good things happen. Just imagine if he made more contact!”
“I hated walking back to the dugout (after) striking out. Apparently, it doesn’t bother these guys, but it bothered the heck out of me. I didn’t even like making outs, but striking out was the worst.”
Second: Find a option to block out the noise.
“Back then, we didn’t even see what we were hitting until Sunday when the averages came out,” Lynn recalled of getting to get the newspaper simply to understand how everybody was faring. “It was easy to just play the game and not be overwhelmed by all the other stuff. Today’s players, they can’t do that. I don’t know how they do it, to be honest, because they can’t get away from all that chatter.”
For now, although, the Casas chatter is fairly good.
Source: www.bostonherald.com