Let’s Hear From a Pair of Red Sox Prospects

Triston Casas and Grant Williams are teammates with distinctly different profiles. Boston’s first-round pick in the 2018 draft, the 21-year-old Casas is a 6-foot-4, 250-pound first baseman who is No. 2 on our Red Sox Top Prospects list, and No. 42 on our updated Top 100 Prospects list. Williams is unranked. A 25-year-old middle infielder who lasted until the 310th pick of the 2018 draft, he hit in the nine-hole when the Double-A Portland Sea Dogs hosted the Somerset Patriots on Wednesday night. Befitting his stature, Casas batted third.

Prior to the game, I spoke to both players about their respective hitting approaches.

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Casas possesses plus power, but he doesn’t present as a pure slugger. Patience is a big part of his M.O., as is a willingness to choke up on the bat when contact is at a premium. The lefty swinger cited Joey Votto as his role model when he was featured in a January 2020 Sunday Notes column, and as he acknowledged on Wednesday, that remains the case.

I asked Casas if he’s changed as a hitter since entering pro ball three years ago.

“I’d like to think I haven’t, but I have a lot,” responded the Plantation, Florida product. “I kind of battle that. I fight every single day to make adjustments and become the best hitter that I can, but to also apply what I’ve been doing my whole life. So I like to say that I haven’t changed too much, but at the same time, I have.”

I asked the up-and-coming youngster if he could elaborate.

“I’m trying to be a little shorter to the ball,” explained Casas, who is slashing .282/.378/.444 on the season. “We face a lot of guys who are throwing hard, and… controlling my effort level is another big focus of mine. So I’m trying to shorten up my swing and be adjustable to all different speeds and locations. I’m also trying to really zone in on one pitch. When you’re in high school, when you’re on the junior circuit, you can kind of go up without a real approach. Here, honing in on one pitch and one game plan has been an adjustment I’ve had to make.”

The youngest player on the Sea Dogs roster doesn’t lack for confidence. Casas — his name rhymes with “tosses” — pointed to just that when asked how he balances waiting for his pitch with knowing how pitchers are typically going to attack him. “I feel like any time a human arm is throwing a ball to me, I can hit it,” opined Casas. “The matchup doesn’t really matter. I know what kind of stuff he’s throwing, and I know the swing that I have to put on the ball to hit it.”

And again, being shorter to the ball is a big part of that. Once again seeking elaboration, I inquired as to how one goes about doing so.

“I think it’s an external focus,” Casas told me. “It’s really just trying to be down to the ball, keeping my top hand above the baseball, trying to be short into the zone and not complicating things. So in a way, it’s not a mechanical thing so much as a mental thing. From there, the mechanics follow. You don’t want your barrel dragging too far in the back of the zone. You want it short, nice, quick, and efficient through the zone.”

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No hitter in minor league baseball with as many as 30 plate appearances has a lower strikeout rate than Grant Williams. The 25-year-old second baseman has come to the plate 131 times and has gone down by way of the K on just seven occasions.

I asked the Kennesaw State University product about his 5.3% strikeout rate. More specifically, how and why is it as low as it is?

“I’m just sticking to my approach,” replied Williams, who is slashing 308/.349/.375 on the season. “[No] matter who is on the mound, it’s me versus him and I’m competing to every last pitch in every at-bat. I’m staying disciplined and swinging a good pitches. That’s the ‘how.’ The ‘why?’ comes down to competition. That’s all it is. It’s having that grit to stay in a box and compete against any pitcher.”

But then there’s the other side of the coin. As impressive as his strikeout rate is, William’s walk rate is an equally-Lilliputian 5.3%. That inspires another question: Does he swing at too many pitches?

“I don’t think I swing too much,” replied Williams. “With the hand-eye coordination that I have, yes, sometimes I can go back and beat myself up over swinging at a pitch. But my game is putting the ball in play and finding ways to get on base so I can score runs. So no, I don’t think I swing too much.”

Williams is a 5-foot-10, 180-pound middle infielder with one home run in 776 professional plate appearances. That means he’s generally going to get attacked, as opposed to being pitched to carefully à la Casas.

Not necessarily.

“It’s funny; I actually do get pitched very similarly to Casas in some cases,” Williams told me. “In a hitter’s count, I’m not always seeing a fastball. They’ll throw me a changeup, they’ll throw me a slider — really their whole arsenal. But that’s part of baseball. It’s not a guarantee that you get a fastball in certain counts, and it’s not a guarantee that you get an off-speed in certain counts. That’s why you need that mentality of being ready on every pitch.”

As the numbers show, Williams is not only ready, he’s willing and able. Moreover, he’s smart enough to understand that he can’t try to be something he isn’t.

“I’m a different type of player,” said Williams. “I’m not going to go up there and try to put the ball in the seats. I know the game that I’m supposed to play. There’s launch angle and all that type of baseball talk, but do you know what? I’m just a baseball player. I’m out here trying to help this team win any way that I can, and putting the ball in play is a big part of how I do that.”