Red Sox Could Trade Polarizing Slugger And Move Rafael Devers To 1B, Per Insider

It seems there are some players on the Boston Red Sox who will never be able to escape the trade rumors.

The Red Sox have a "good problem," at least in the eyes of many baseball observers. Their position player depth chart is crammed with talented hitters, and as there are only nine spots in a batting order, they've got major league-ready bats sitting in Triple-A.

At some point this season, it wouldn't be a surprise to see Boston trade an established major leaguer, likely one 25 or younger, to free up an extra spot in the order that facilitates the arrivals of top prospects Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer on the major league roster.

First baseman Triston Casas was mired in trade rumors all winter, and that was before he opened this season struggling mightily at the plate. Now, the rumors take on a different tone, because Boston would be trading him at a low point in his value, which isn't an appealing proposition.

Regardless, the rumors aren't fading away. On Monday, insider Ken Rosenthal said on his "Fair Territory" podcast that the Red Sox might move the 25-year-old Casas to make room for designated hitter Rafael Devers to play first base, re-opening the DH spot for Boston to use more freely.

"Ultimately, yes, they might decide to trade him, but I don't believe they're going to do it just yet," Rosenthal said. "They did entertain talks for him during the offseason. Ultimately, this could be the spot for Devers—play him at first base, open up the DH spot for whoever, whether it's [Masataka] Yoshida or someone else, or you just rotate it.

"But this issue is not going away, obviously. It depends on how Casas performs. If he gets hot and shows he can be the player he was initially, the Red Sox are going to have some really hard choices to make—good choices."

Even with Casas struggling as much as he is (.165 AVG, .520 OPS through 22 games), we saw what a difference-maker he can be when he cranked a three-run homer on Tuesday night to seal a win against the Seattle Mariners.

When Casas is right, the best version of the Red Sox lineup has him in it. Yet, if he remains in a slump for too long, there will be no one willing to take him in a trade for much more than a lottery ticket.

Ultimately, the Red Sox just have to hope the slump is over for good soon. At that point, the smart money is still on the lefty sticking around, at least for the rest of this season.

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