Red Sox notebook: Triston Casas, Garrett Whitlock and prospects update

LAS VEGAS – Triston Casas will play for Tigres del Licey of the Dominican Winter League this offseason. The 26-year-old first baseman also played for Licey during the 2022-23 offseason.“I don’t have a definitive date,” said president of baseball operations Craig Breslow. “Still needs to ramp up in terms of game speed and intensity. But he is feeling good, so we’re optimistic he’s gonna be able to compete in Winter League games.”Casas has not played in a major league game since rupturing his left patellar tendon more than 18 months ago on May 2, 2025. He dealt with a left-side intercostal strain earlier in the 2026 season, then underwent arthroscopic wrist surgery in August.“He’s obviously missed a significant amount of time over the last couple of years so we don’t have real workload concerns in terms of total volume,” Breslow said. “We just want to make sure that his body is ready to do what will be asked of it and what’s required of playing in a pretty competitive environment.”Whitlock’s leg injury was a stress fracture As previously reported, imaging revealed that setup man Garrett Whitlock pitched through a fractured tibia late in the 2026 season. Breslow gave the exact diagnosis of “stress fracture” on Wednesday. “My understanding is stress fracture, and so far it’s making good progress,” Breslow said. “I don’t anticipate this to be something that has longer term implications.”Whitlock finished ninth for 2026 AL Reliever of the Year, receiving one second-place vote and two fifth-place votes. He posted a 1.72 ERA, 0.90 WHIP and .204 opponent batting average in 54 games (52 ⅓ innings).Pitching prospect is healthyMarcus Phillips, one of the top pitching prospects in the organization, is fully healthy after he missed time late in the season with elbow inflammation.Boston drafted Phillips, 22, 33rd overall in 2025 out of Tennessee. The righty struggled in his first professional season. He went 0-7 with a 6.71 ERA and 1.80 WHIP in 19 outings, including 18 starts, for High-A Greenville in 2026.The Red Sox drafted him knowing he would be a work in progress.“We knew that Marcus was a really good athlete,” Breslow said. “Really elite mover, and had the ability to do some really unique things when you look at the shapes of his pitches, particularly the fastball and the ability to spin. But he didn’t have a ton of pitching reps under his belt. So knew that the development from him might look a little bit different than it would for somebody like (Kyson) Witherspoon or (Anthony) Eyanson.”Command was an issue. He walked 51 batters in 61 ⅔ innings.“The performance this year was inconsistent,” Breslow said. “But I know that our pitching guys were also working with him to try and tighten up the delivery and really try to get the fastball shape where I think he thinks and we think it can play the best. But he made a lot of progress. Maybe not progress that would show up if you look at the walk rate. But his ability to do some things with the ball is pretty special, pretty unique. And I just think the more reps he gets as a pitcher, the better off he’s going to be. So we’re still really, really high on him.”Any untouchable players on roster?Do the Red Sox consider any of their players untouchable or close to untouchable in trades?“I don’t think I have ever said in no world would we ever understand how a team values a player on our roster,” Breslow answered. “I think doing so is kind of unnecessarily limiting. But I think what happens far more often in practice is just that the way we feel about some of our players is going to be much higher than the way other teams do. And so you’re just never going to actually line up on a trade. We have a lot of players on our roster that I don’t envision us trading.”Payton Tolle, Garrett Crochet, Roman Anthony and Franklin Arias are considered the closest to untouchable of anyone in the organization. Baseball America ranks Arias No. 2 on its Top 100 prospect list. If the Red Sox are willing to trade the 20-year-old shortstop, they likely would demand an elite shortstop under team control at least through 2028 in return.Site predicts Red Sox for 2027Fangraphs released its MLB offseason power rankings, and for now, have the Red Sox ranked sixth among the 30 MLB teams.The site has the Sox finishing with an 87-75 record, one game behind the Yankees at 88-74 in the American League East. The Red Sox’ projected pitching WAR of 20.5 is second only to the Dodgers (24.2) and Phillies (24.0) while their projected batter WAR of 24.7 is 14th, middle of the pack.More Red Sox coverageRed Sox give Craig Breslow new title, but he says he’s ‘same guy’ with no new responsibilitiesWhere Sonny Gray, two Red Sox relievers finished in Cy Young, Reliever of the Year racesRed Sox takeaways from Day 2 of the GM Meetings | The Fenway RundownCould Curtis Mead be Red Sox’ X-factor in ‘27? ‘The changes he made were real,’ says exec who traded himFenway Insider Live: Sean McAdam on latest from GM Meetings, moreRead the original article on MassLive. Add MassLive as a Preferred Source by clicking here.