Another revealing conversation with Triston Casas
Triston Casas' approach to a contract extension has been consistent ever since the Red Sox made their first offer last offseason.
The first baseball was going to lean on his agents to determine what was a fair value, and it was perceived that whatever the Red Sox initially offered was not up to muster.
Now, however, Casas' tone has taken somewhat of a turn.
Appearing on the Baseball Isn't Boring podcast, Casas explained that he hadn't put himself in a position to continue those levels of contract talks because of what ended up being a injury-plagued 2024 season.
"I didn’t have a year this year. I didn’t put up any numbers that would merit an extension like that," Casas said. "I think if I was a front office representative I would need to see more out of myself, for sure. I’m not expecting any offer that would pique my interest. I haven’t earned it and I don’t think it’s going to come in the near future or any time soon. That’s why I’m going to go to the offseason, work really hard and come back into spring training in really good shape and hope and pray for a potentially healthy season next year because if I’m allowed the opportunity to fail enough times I’m going to figure it out and it’s going to be a beautiful thing."
Heading into the final game of the regular season, Casas had only played in 62 games due to torn cartilage in his rib cage. He has hit .240 with an .805 OPS and 13 home runs, launching his most recent homer Saturday.
When asked if he worried about his injury and lack of production potentially devaluing any future contract talks, Casas was blunt in describing his mindset and approach in that regard.
"Not at all. I never look back on the past and second-guess myself," Casas said regarding how he now views turning down the previous contract offer. "I know in the time, right there, I was willing to leave whatever it was on the table. My family is good on money. We’ve got investments. We’ve got properties and if I don’t make enough dollar from baseball right now I will be totally fine.
"I got acres. I got land. I got houses. I got condos. I got apartments. I got all of it. If I didn’t make another baseball dollar from right now I would go back to school and I would be fine getting a real world job. So I don’t feel like I have any pressure."
He added, "I don’t feel pressure to go out there and have my life on the line every single at-bat because I need that money. That’s just how my parents have raised me. We play this game for the love of it. Not for the money. Not for the fame or the accolades. It’s just because I like being amongst a group of 26 guys that are gritty and get after it and we love spending time with each other. Hanging out. Being best friends. Traveling place to place. And catching flights."
And while there have been examples of teams approaching players with contract extension offers at times of struggle (see Josh Beckett in 2006), Casas said there has been no such talks.
"No, not that I know of," he said of any offers from the Red Sox. "But I don’t blame them. There shouldn’t be."