Alex Cora didn’t mince words when discussing Triston Casas’ defense before Tuesday’s game.
“Inconsistent,” the Sox skipper began. “There’s a few things that we’re working on with him, and we believe he can be much better.”
Casas was even harder on himself.
“I only remember the games that it’s lost us,” he told the Herald of his defense. “It’s one of those things, you do 10 things good and then one thing bad and it erases the 10 good things. I only remember the bad things, those are the only things that stick out in my head. So, I feel like I’m having a bad year defensively.”
Casas has been a key contributor to the MLB-leading 21 double plays his team has turned. And he entered this week’s Mariners series charged with only two errors on the season. Mistakes aren’t always ruled errors, though, and Casas can recite his from memory.
“I know I made a big error in Chicago that was unacceptable, and then there was a pick two days ago that I didn’t make on (Alex) Bregman’s ball,” he said. “Another one that sticks out to me is Trevor (Story’s) throw that I botched on his great play up the middle. So yeah, I got a bunch of errors, and they’ve come in some big situations, unfortunately, and so I feel like I have a lot to work on and a lot to keep improving upon.”
Cora noted that Casas needs to improve his first step.
“He’s fallen into some bad habits lately, but if we can get that one down, it’ll be better,” Cora said. “He’s making throws, he makes every throw at first base. That’s really good, but yeah, we gotta get him moving at first.”
Asked where he feels he can improve, Casas had a different answer.
“Keep playing the game with a lot of attention to detail, just be anticipative to what I believe is going to happen,” he said. “I know the pitch characteristics that our guys are throwing and I have an idea of how the opposing players are swinging the bat, so I think just trying to think ahead and anticipate the type of ground-ball that I’m going to get is going to be important.”
“There’s no ground-ball in practice that you can simulate that comes as hard as the ones in the game,” he continued. “When they hit the grass, or whether they hit the dirt, there’s a lot of variables, so really, no two ground-balls are the same.”
Casas entered Tuesday hitting .158 with a .466 OPS, and only 12 hits (three doubles, one home run), six walls, and 20 strikeouts in 21 games. His 7.2% walk rate is a far cry from the 14.2% he played to in the first three years of his big-league career. He’s just over a year removed from the freak rib-cartilage injury which kept him sidelined until mid-August. He’s pain-free and confident his batspeed is as it was before the injury.
“I think I’m the same player. Numbers might not reflect that, but physically my swing feels just as strong,” he said.