MLB Notebook: Red Sox’ Triston Casas suffered a ruptured patellar tendon and will miss the rest of the season; Breslow & Cora talk about internal options

Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow spoke with the media outside the home clubhouse on Saturday afternoon, revealing what most expected. Triston Casas will miss the remainder of the season with a ruptured left patellar tendon and will require surgery.

The exact timetable for how long he will be out for is still unknown.

“We’re still collecting information,” Breslow said. “We don’t anticipate him returning this season.”

Casas hit a short chopper to the mound and was attempting to beat out a throw from Twins starter Joe Ryan in the second inning of the Red Sox’ 6-1 win over the Twins on Friday night. Upon reaching the base, he slipped, and as he stepped on the bag, he fell hard to the ground, grabbing at his left knee.

After lying on his back near first base, Casas was stretchered off the field and taken to an area hospital. As of Saturday afternoon, Casas was still in the hospital.

“It’s tough; you feel for Triston given what he’s been through the last few years here,” Breslow said. “It seems like these injuries pop up in kind of unconventional ways. And unfortunately, this is a serious one that’s going to keep him out for a long time.

“He certainly struggled through the first month or so of the season, but that didn’t change what we believed his production was capable of being,” Breslow added.

Alex Cora said that Casas told him that after the injury occurred, he had immediately felt pain in his left knee as he was approaching the first base bag. Imaging revealed that the patellar rupture was the only injury in his left knee and that his ligaments are still intact.

“That’s what the diagnosis is,” Breslow said. “He had pretty comprehensive imaging to make sure there wasn’t anything else going on. That’s where we are.”

The 25-year-old had gotten off to a slow start to the season offensively, hitting just .182 with three homers, 11 RBI, and a .580 OPS. He has been limited to a total of 92 games over the last two seasons. Casas missed 98 games last season after he tore cartilage in his rib cage swinging in a game last April while the club was on the road in Pittsburgh.

“It’s a big loss,” Breslow said. “In addition to what we think we were gonna get on the offensive side, he was a stabilizing presence and made some nice plays in the field. Also, a big personality and a big part of the clubhouse and the team. He’s going to be missed in all facets.”

With Casas out for the season, Boston will immediately pivot to a platoon at first base between Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro.

“We’ll give Romy some at-bats. We will. I want to see how it works out,” Cora said. “Defensively, he has been solid. Offensively, he has been good. It’s an opportunity for him to go out there and perform. I don’t want him to feel like this is it, that this is his chance to shine. Just do your part. Don’t try to be somebody you’re not.”

“It just happened yesterday,” Cora said. “We’ll talk, and we’ll see where we’re at. But I think Romy and Toro— they can do the job. I truly believe that, so we’re gonna roll with them.”

After Casas was shelved with his rib cage injury last season, Breslow swiftly acquired both Garrett Cooper in a trade with the Cubs and signed Dom Smith to a minor league deal after he opted out of his contract with the Rays.

“We obviously started this, this last offseason, trying to be aggressive in putting a competitive team on the field,” Breslow said. “This is unfortunately an opportunity to explore what is available. We’ll look both internally and potentially externally as well."

Breslow told reporters that Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer will not be moving to first base; meanwhile, Cora downplayed the idea of Rafael Devers grabbing a first baseman’s mitt and taking grounders at the position.

“Both of those guys, obviously, are showing the ability to impact both sides of the ball,” Breslow said. “But given the bright futures that they have ahead of them at their respective positions, introducing additional variables doesn’t make a ton of sense right now.”

Anthony has played all three outfield positions in the minors, and the team has been having him work on becoming a more complete defensive player. Red Sox fans are salivating at the idea of Anthony finally cracking the starting lineup at Fenway Park. As he enters play on Saturday, Anthony is hitting .292 with a .938 OPS in 27 games. Mayer has played second base, shortstop, and third base for the WooSox and has hit .262 with an .827 OPS in 26 games.

Breslow didn’t officially rule out the idea of Devers at first base.

“Right now, we’re not in a place to speak to that,” Breslow said. “But obviously we’ll have conversations internally, and we’ll do the best we can to find the short-term solution and also one that we feel like can hold up over the long term.

“We’ve largely been having the conversation about the transition from third to DH (for Devers) and helping him establish a routine, and to your point, it seems like he has settled into one.”

Devers has been settling into his role as the team’s primary designated hitter. The left-handed slugger is hitting .284 with a .921 OPS over the last month after his horrific start to the season.

Cora also noted that first base is not always easy to learn, especially once the season is underway, citing examples of Kyle Schwarber and Franchy Cordero getting opportunities at the position in recent years.

“It is a tough position, especially nowadays that you’re pushing that guy to the (second-base) hole with right-handed hitters,” Cora said. “We got Casas closer to the bag because we felt like he was getting late to first base. Cut-off and relays, there’s a lot of stuff. I had a conversation with (former first baseman Kevin Youkilis) a few years ago. People think that, ‘Oh, just play first base.’ No, it doesn’t work that way — the picks, the throws, everything that comes with it. It’s a tough decision to play, a tough position to learn, and like I said, I’m very comfortable with these two guys (Toro and Gonzalez) playing first base.”

If Devers starts playing at first base, it could allow the Red Sox to activate Masataka Yoshida from the injured list and slot him in at DH. Yoshida is reportedly still experiencing pain while throwing due to his recovery from offseason shoulder surgery.

“I think it’s important to decouple those things just given that Masa, he’s had some hurdles as it relates to recovering with the throwing,” Breslow said. “We still feel like he’s a capable outfielder and want to make sure that when he comes back he’s completely healthy.”

Yoshida has been in Fort Myers working out but returned to Boston this week for imaging on his shoulder. The results were reportedly clean despite his pain. 

“Imaging showed the normal post-operative recovery,” Breslow said. “It doesn’t appear to be anything structural, just some kind of discomfort threshold that he hasn’t been able to get through yet. But he’ll continue throwing, and we’ll continue pushing forward.”

Yoshida was in Boston on Saturday before the game and was throwing a football in the outfield. 

Boston will begin to transition to life without Casas for a second straight season, but despite that, the entire team is rallying around him to provide support as he awaits his upcoming surgery.

“The kid, he enjoys this," Cora said. "He likes showing up early. We hate that, but he loves it. He enjoys cleaning those shoes and staying here until late. He loves baseball. This is what makes him feel comfortable. Right now, he’s not gonna have it for a while, but knowing him, knowing his family, and knowing the support system that he has, he’s going to be back, and he’s going to be good again.

“These guys, they work so hard to post, to have big seasons, and all that. He did an outstanding job in the offseason to put himself in that situation. Didn’t start the way he wanted to, but he was going to play and play a lot. Now, we have to focus on the rehab after the surgery. Hopefully, get him back stronger than ever and ready to go next year."

EXTERNAL OPTIONS

The Red Sox could make an external move in the coming days to add more depth at first base.

For the second straight season, Breslow will be scouring the trade market to replace an injured Casas. Externally, players like Dom Smith (Yankees), Jon Singleton (Mets), or even 40-year-old Yuli Gurriel, who was just designated for assignment by the Padres, are options.

Gurriel has familiarity with Cora from their time together in Houston.

Anthony Rizzo, who remained unsigned all winter, remains a free agent. He will turn 36 in August, and in the short term is another capable candidate to play the position if the Sox' current options struggle offensively and defensively.

At the start of spring training, Rizzo told The Athletic’s Ken Rosenthal that he wanted to remain in the game but understands that the end of his career is on the horizon. “I’ve definitely thought about it. I think I have a lot to give to the game still.”

“But at the same time, if teams are not going to want to pay a few million dollars for veterans, I’ve seen it the last 10 years of my career. It’s what happens to the older guys. They kind of get squeezed. You’ve seen it happen more and more. I’m not naive to it. It could be it.”

“The conversations about longer-term solutions are ongoing,” Breslow said. “We’ll figure out something. We’ve got no choice.”

"I think we need to put all options on the table. Like I said, asking kind of guys who haven’t played in the big leagues yet to assume new positions at the same time they’re trying to make that transition is a difficult ask. But we need to be open-minded about solutions here.

“Through the first month of the season, despite some inconsistent play, we feel like we’ve got a really talented team and a group that we believe in, and we want to make sure that we’re doing everything we can to stay as competitive as possible.”

HIDEO NOMO'S MLB DEBUT 30 YEARS AGO LED HIM EVENTUALLY TO BOSTON

Thirty years ago, Hideo Nomo made his Major League debut for the Los Angeles Dodgers on May 2, 1995, becoming just the second Japanese-born player to appear in the big leagues.

The anniversary of Nomo’s arrival in the States had me reminiscing about his first start as a member of the Red Sox.

After signing Manny Ramirez to a record eight-year deal for $160 million, then-Red Sox general manager Dan Duquette made an under-the-radar signing in Nomo.

The Sox signed the former 1995 NL Rookie of the Year to a one-year deal for $4.5 million. 

“I'm going with the Red Sox because they have a strong chance to go to the World Series,” said the right-hander at the time of the signing. 

Nomo was coming off a year that he finished 8-12 and had a 4.74 ERA with the Tigers. He finished that season with 188 strikeouts, which led the Tigers and was the sixth-most in the AL.

NO-NO FOR NOMO

Boston opened the 2001 season on the road to face the Baltimore Orioles. After the Sox dropped the season opener 2-1 in extra innings, Nomo made his debut for Boston, facing Sidney Ponson. Not only was it going to be Nomo’s Red Sox debut, it was also Don Orsillo’s first game he’d call for Boston in his broadcast career.

The righty started slow on the mound but gained momentum as the innings rolled on. Nomo began to dominate the game. 

By the sixth inning, he would get great command of his fastball, forkball, and splitter. Nomo would strike out eight Orioles hitters from the sixth through the eighth inning and finished the game with 11 strikeout victims.

Red Sox first baseman Brian Daubach beat Ponson with a pair of home runs, an opposite-field, two-run shot in the third and a bases-empty homer wrapped around the right-field foul pole in the eighth inning, staking Nomo to a lead.

With one out in the ninth, Orsillo welcomed ESPN’s Baseball Tonight viewers to watch as Nomo potentially threw a no-hitter.

“I’d like to welcome ESPN’s Baseball Tonight viewers to our telecast,” said Orsillo.

Every no-hitter or perfect game always has at least one giant play that helps keep the pitcher’s bid intact. That play came after Nomo threw a 2-1 pitch, and Orioles’ Mike Bordick blooped a ball to shallow center field, but Red Sox second baseman Mike Lansing sprinted and made a fantastic running catch to secure the no-hit bid. 

Delino DeShields, Nomo’s former teammate with the Dodgers, hit a pitch into left field, and Orsillo made his first of many famous Red Sox calls: "Lifted in the air to left, (Troy) O’Leary coming on, and Hideo Nomo has no-hit the Baltimore Orioles!"

Orsillo is the only Red Sox broadcaster to call a no-hitter in his first game. It would be the first of three he would call while in the NESN booth, narrating no-hitters thrown by Jon Lester and Clay Buchholz. His fourth came in 2021 when Joe Musgrove no-hit the Texas Rangers.

YOSHINOBU YAMAMOTO PITCHES ON 30TH ANNIVERSARY OF NOMO’S DEBUT

Yoshinobu Yamamoto took the mound in Atlanta on Friday on the 30th anniversary of Nomo’s Dodger debut.

The Dodgers’ Yamamoto is off to a dominating start in his sophomore season, throwing six scoreless innings in the Dodgers’ 2–1 win against the Braves on Friday night.

“The split was fantastic. The command was back to being who he is,” said manager Dave Roberts. “I think the last (start) he just wasn’t as sharp. But today, he got back the command, and the split really played tonight.”

He carried a no-hit bid into the sixth inning before Austin Riley produced the Braves' only hit off Yamamoto. Prior to the game, the righty was named the National League’s Player of the Month, posting a 1.06 ERA, the best in baseball. After his outing, he lowered his ERA to a 0.90 mark.

Yamamoto had 60 strikes in the 91 pitches he threw. He had a 34% called-strike-whiff rate against the 21 batters he faced. Yamamoto struck out six — four of them were swinging.

AROUND THE LEAGUE

- Roger Clemens was in Boston over the weekend to watch his son, Twins infielder Kody Clemens, play against his former team in a ballpark where he created so many memories.

The current Clemens played his first career game at Fenway Park and launched a go-ahead two-run homer in the sixth inning off Sox starter Hunter Dobbins.

“It’s exciting,” Clemens said to reporters before the game. “I always wanted to play here. I love the atmosphere and how the fans feel like they’re right on top of you. They’re engaged in the game. It’s exciting.”

- Orioles infield prospect Coby Mayo is getting another opportunity in the big leagues. Mayo, the No. 2 prospect, according to MLB Pipeline, was recalled from Triple-A Norfolk prior to Saturday’s game vs. the Royals at Camden Yards. He will replace Ramón Urías, who went on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain.

- Red Sox starter Walker Buehler was placed on the injured list with right shoulder bursitis. Buehler, who was scheduled to pitch in the Sox’ series opener against the Twins, flew home early from Toronto for testing after not bouncing back well from his last start Saturday in Cleveland.

- The Blue Jays have been looking to add more pitching depth, signing free-agent right-hander Spencer Turnbull and fellow right-hander José Ureña, who was designated for assignment by the Mets earlier this week, to Major League deals, according to a report from MLB Network insider Jon Heyman.

Turnbull had gone unsigned after spending the 2024 season with the Phillies, going 3-0 with a 2.65 ERA in 17 appearances, including seven starts.

- Thoughts and prayers are with Kavan Markwood, who fell from the 21-foot-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park during Wednesday night's game between the Pirates and Cubs. He remains in critical condition.