Triston Casas talks Netflix, contract talks
FORT MYERS, Fla. - For two years now - both in-season and whenever given the chance in the offseason - Triston Casas has been asked about a possible contract extension. And for two years the answer from the Red Sox first baseman has been relatively the same.
No offers had come his way, but he was certainly open to listening.
Then, while standing in front of a mountain of New Balance boxes in front of his JetBlue Park locker, Casas sang a different tune. It turns out an offer had finally come his way.
“Of course we have,” he said when asked if there had been any talks of a contract extension. “Nothing enticing, though.”
When asked about what he might be looking for, there were no years or number but more of a general idea. ““One that sets [up] me and my family for the rest of my life,” said Casas. “I don't know what that looks like. I’m low maintenance. I don't need a lot. So I’ve got a small family. I don't need much, but something that I think would suffice [for] the work that I put into it my whole my whole life would be nice."
But this time around, the criteria wasn't met.
For some players, such a decision would be agonizing. Former Red Sox Mookie Betts, for instance, once said that the first big extension offer he received from the Red Sox was the toughest of them all to turn down.
"That was a really emotional time because I was like, 'Mom, we've never seen this amount of money,'" Betts told WEEI.com during what would be his final month as a Red Sox. "She was like, 'OK, cool. It's a lot of money. I think we know it's a lot of money. So let's focus on the facts. Let's focus on what is real and we took the emotions out of it.' The first one was definitely the hardest. At the time we had never seen anything like that."
Casas, however, experienced no such anxiety.
Sometimes around the holiday season he got a call from his agent, Dan Lozano, while driving. It was a remarkably simple exchange involving a potentially very complicated, life-altering situation.
"I was just in the car on the phone talking to my agent. He just called me, said, ‘What do you think about this?’ I didn’t like it and that was it," Casas told WEEI.com. "Just turn the page.
"Just said, 'Yeah, I'm OK.' That was it."
No hesitation? No wanting to mull it over?
"No. Not at all," Casas said. "I think I could do this for 20 more years so I’m not in a rush to sign a contract that I will play through anyway. I just didn’t think it was something important I needed to do and if I did well enough it would be there in the future."
While Casas didn't want to reveal what the terms of the offer consisted of, such deals for players living life in their first couple of seasons as big leaguers (and even before they reach the majors, in some cases) are becoming popularized. One example popped up almost exactly a year ago when Corbin Carroll - who had played 32 major league games inked an eight-year, $111 million deal with Arizona.
At the time of the signing, Carroll and Casas possessed relatively the same amount of big league experience.
Judging by Casas' first year on the field - and growing positive presence off the field - such a deal would have likely presented the same sort of satisfaction Arizona garnered after watching Carroll win National League Rookie of the Year.
Casas finished hitting .263 with 24 homers and an OPS of .856 while finishing third in American League Rookie of the Year voting. But it was how he progressed throughout the 2023 campaign that offered excitement. For the final three months of the season, Casas totaled a .996 OPS, hitting .305.
The performance and the package led to contract offer a few months later, serving as one of Casas' best compliments, to date. But, as the affable 24-year-old notes, taking compliments isn't his strong suit.
"No, I don’t. I’m working on it," he said when confirming that he doesn't receive pats on the back seamlessly. "I see (the contract offer) as a compliment. They aren’t going to offer that amount of money to somebody they didn’t completely trust, so it does feel good to get that interest from the team. It’s something I hope to work on a little bit more, but as of now I want to play this year and see how it looks."