Triston Casas was supposed to be getting close. Instead, he’s back to square one. Again.
The Red Sox first baseman has been shut down from swinging after a wrist injury flared up, interim manager Chad Tracy confirmed Sunday. This comes just two weeks after Casas finally resumed a hitting progression in Fort Myers. According to Tim Healey of The Boston Globe, the wrist issue appeared suddenly and forced the team to pull the plug on any baseball activity.
Casas hasn’t played since May 2025, when he tore the left patellar tendon in his knee while running out a ground ball. That injury required surgery and kept him out for the rest of the season. He spent the entire offseason rehabbing, only to suffer an intercostal strain on his left side in April that stopped his hitting program cold. Then, on June 21, Tracy said Casas was taking light swings off a tee and soft toss. Optimism crept back in.
Fourteen days later, it’s gone.
This isn’t just bad luck at this point. It’s a pattern. Since his breakout 2023 season when he hit .263 with 24 homers and an .857 OPS in 132 games, Casas has played only 92 total games over the next two seasons. His numbers have slipped to .222 with 16 homers in that span, and before the knee injury in 2025 he was hitting just .182 in 29 games. He also missed most of 2024 with torn rib cartilage.
How the offense is holding up without him
Boston entered Sunday’s game against the Angels with a major-league-low 76 home runs and a 39-48 record, dead last in the AL East. The lineup has struggled to generate power without Casas in the middle of it. But first base specifically has been covered by Willson Contreras, who’s put up a .285/.378/.536 slash line with 19 homers in the first half. Somehow, he didn’t make the All-Star team.
Still, the Red Sox need Casas back if they want to be anything more than a last-place team. The problem is nobody knows when that’ll happen anymore. The wrist issue isn’t believed to be structural, but the team hasn’t said much beyond that.
Other injury updates worth noting
Roman Anthony, one of Boston’s top prospects, had his rehab moved to Fort Myers to keep the clubhouse from getting too crowded. Rookie left-hander Connelly Early is getting a second opinion on his left elbow inflammation, which never sounds great for a young arm. On the positive side, veteran starter Patrick Sandoval threw five scoreless innings with seven strikeouts in what was likely his final rehab start for Double-A Portland, moving closer to rejoining the rotation.
For Casas, the road back just got longer. And nobody in Boston can be sure where it ends.
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