Red Sox Projected To Target $38M Rising Star In Blockbuster Triston Casas Trade

A Red Sox-Cardinals trade to shake up the whole league?

Feb 26, 2021; Jupiter, Florida, USA; A general view of the St. Louis Cardinals logo on the stadium at Roger Dean Stadium during spring training workouts. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images / Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

The Boston Red Sox and St. Louis Cardinals have each had players embroiled in trade talks all winter.

For Boston, it's first baseman Triston Casas. For St. Louis, it's third baseman Nolan Arenado and closer Ryan Helsley.

The Red Sox have too many left-handed bats in their lineup, and Casas, for as powerful and talented as he is, plays a relatively low-value position at first base. Helsley is entering a walk year as the Cardinals head into rebuild mode, while Arenado's contract is a burden on the St. Louis payroll.

There's been a lot of buzz surrounding Arenado as a fit for the Red Sox, because he bats righty and plays better third base defense than Rafael Devers. Is there a world where all the trade targets get swapped for one another?

On Friday, content creator Robbie Hyde came up with a blockbuster trade proposal that would swap Arenado and Helsley for Casas. However, the key additions to the trade were Cardinals 22-year-old catcher Iván Herrera and Red Sox starting pitcher Kutter Crawford.

"I love Casas, but if he’s going to be moved, one of the best things the Red Sox could do is add a good catcher, which is the highest valued position in the game, especially after trading (Kyle) Teel," Hyde wrote.

"Along with this, you add Arenado as well to improve the defense and will surely benefit with the (Green) Monster. Shoot, even maybe add Helsley to be your closer too? Bananas."

Hyde included trade surplus figures from Baseball Trade Values that determined Herrera's overall value to be $38.4 million. Casas and Crawford combined for $56.9 million, while Helsley was at $12.1 million and Arenado at $-16.6 million.

Herrera would be a serious prize, especially given that the Red Sox dumped the aforementioned Teel, who looked like their catcher of the future. He put up an .800 OPS and 1.7 WAR in his 72 games with the Cardinals last season and could be one of the fastest rising stars at the catching position.

Of course, all of those pluses are reasons that the Cardinals would have to keep him untouchable in trade talks. But Casas and Crawford could be incredibly valuable players too, so all sides would have to take an enormous leap of faith to make this vision come true.

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