Why sign Houck and Casas?

[Deja Doh]

What's the hope there? 

Supposedly Houck is out for 2026 (hoping for September). He'll be 30.  Hopefully he will return to 2024 form and better.  But we are paying him $4.1 million to sit and rehab.  

As for Casas, he's gonna be 26 In a week, is the signing to make him tradable? Can he return to 2023 form?  With Contreras signed, what's his role, because I don't see another position he can play?

We rightly signed Romy Gonzalez, as he can play 2nd or back up at 1st.  

20 players are under contract.  Bregman, Giolito, Wilson, Hendriks and Lowe are still available.  

Matz, May, Refsnyder, and Winckowski are gone.

 

[moonslav59]

Houck is cheaper than Hendriks, Sandoval, Paxton and all the other IL pitchers we dream of returning to glory we signed. It makes total sense they view that $4M as a good gamble.

Casas is worth the tiny money spent on him. That $1.6M is just $800K over a min wage guy we'd have in his place if we non tendered him. The guy was an.800+ batter for a long time. He may even play in 2026!

[Bellhorn04]

It's a relatively small investment in two guys who have had success at the MLB level.

[JoeBrady]

Houck was borderline.  I'm not sure hoe he claims a spot in the rotation, this year or next.  Casas was automatic.  Even if he starts off in AAA, he still has serious value.  From 2022-2024, at a minimum of 800 PAs, Casas is #36 out of 283 eligible.

The funny part is, over that period, there are two interesting guys tied with him-Schwarber and Ketel Marte, with Bregman being only one point behind, and Paredes only 4 points behind.

[Behindenemylines]

47 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

It's a relatively small investment in two guys who have had success at the MLB level.

Agree, both Houck and Casis have both had some successes and are still inexpensive. Houck was an All-Star pitcher not to long ago, and Casis could be a source of power the Sox have been looking for.

[moonslav59]

Houck was our ace before Crochet. His horrible start to 2025 and maybe his ending to 2024 might have been related to the injury not yet discovered. He's worth the $4M gamble towards next year. His arb will not go up.

Casas has a chance at leading the team in homers.

[Randy Red Sox]

1 hour ago, moonslav59 said:

Houck was our ace before Crochet. His horrible start to 2025 and maybe his ending to 2024 might have been related to the injury not yet discovered. He's worth the $4M gamble towards next year. His arb will not go up.

Casas has a chance at leading the team in homers.

your last sentence says a lot

[moonslav59]

2 minutes ago, Randy Red Sox said:

your last sentence says a lot

Yes. It could mean he leads the teams with 22 Hrs, or he could be healthy and hit 36 and double the second most HR player on the team. Maybe he barely beats Abreu 28 to 27.

[JoeBrady]

3 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Yes. It could mean he leads the teams with 22 Hrs, or he could be healthy and hit 36 and double the second most HR player on the team. Maybe he barely beats Abreu 28 to 27.

Casas has averaged 33 per 600 ABs for his career.  That would've been good for #16 last year.

[TedYazPapiMookie]

8 hours ago, Deja Doh said:

What's the hope there? 

Supposedly Houck is out for 2026 (hoping for September). He'll be 30.  Hopefully he will return to 2024 form and better.  But we are paying him $4.1 million to sit and rehab.  

As for Casas, he's gonna be 26 In a week, is the signing to make him tradable? Can he return to 2023 form?  With Contreras signed, what's his role, because I don't see another position he can play?

We rightly signed Romy Gonzalez, as he can play 2nd or back up at 1st.  

20 players are under contract.  Bregman, Giolito, Wilson, Hendriks and Lowe are still available.  

Matz, May, Refsnyder, and Winckowski are gone.

 

With Contreras aging quickly (3 consecutive years of big drop offs in WAR) and his 34-year-old age, Casas needs to stay around for when Contreras doesn't perform.  Plus, if Yoshida and Abreu fail at the DH position, he could fill that slot as well.  Houck is a right-handed Sale so he should have been a no-brainer.  

[Yaz Fan Since 67]

I don't see how Casas can lead the team in home runs when he will be sitting behind Contreras.  I'm tied of waiting on Triston Casas.  As he has notorious slow starts I don't see him as an effective bench player when he needs ABs to get going every year. 

I'm not sure the team still sees him as a long term solution so I can see them trading him.  And then we all hold our breaths and hope he does not blow up for another team.

[Duran Is The Man]

10 minutes ago, Yaz Fan Since 67 said:

I don't see how Casas can lead the team in home runs when he will be sitting behind Contreras.  I'm tied of waiting on Triston Casas.  As he has notorious slow starts I don't see him as an effective bench player when he needs ABs to get going every year. 

I'm not sure the team still sees him as a long term solution so I can see them trading him.  And then we all hold our breaths and hope he does not blow up for another team.

even before he got hurt last season, his numbers were absolutely horrific. what a dud he's turned out to be.

[Hugh2]

24 minutes ago, Duran Is The Man said:

even before he got hurt last season, his numbers were absolutely horrific. what a dud he's turned out to be.

A dud? 
 

despite that he still has a career OPS of .800, I thought last year was a slow start, then he got injured and never got a chance to get going.

maybe he’ll never be good again, and maybe he’ll never get here but he’s one healthy season from going from Dud to Stud.

[Hugh2]

Or maybe dud to Dude, adding a vowel seems more efficient 

[Hugh2]

I’m not sure why your trade Casas.  If he recovers his value is very high, and right now it’s close to nothing.

he won’t hurt you playing in AAA.  If he fights his way back he can become your DH or net more trade value.  
 

Very little to lose, and an effton to gain by giving him 6-8 weeks in woo

[FredLynn]

16 hours ago, moonslav59 said:

Houck was our ace before Crochet. His horrible start to 2025 and maybe his ending to 2024 might have been related to the injury not yet discovered. He's worth the $4M gamble towards next year. His arb will not go up.

Casas has a chance at leading the team in homers.

And in days on the IL.

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, Hugh2 said:

If he recovers his value is very high, and right now it’s close to nothing.

IMHO, there will always be a GM willing to bet that he can turn any player around.  And I'd bet that more GMs will be worried about his injury than his performance.  There is a very good chance he will be a good to very-good hitter.

[Bellhorn04]

2 hours ago, Yaz Fan Since 67 said:

I don't see how Casas can lead the team in home runs when he will be sitting behind Contreras.  I'm tied of waiting on Triston Casas.  As he has notorious slow starts I don't see him as an effective bench player when he needs ABs to get going every year. 

I'm not sure the team still sees him as a long term solution so I can see them trading him.  And then we all hold our breaths and hope he does not blow up for another team.

He's at that point where a rebound would be a pleasant surprise.  But certainly not impossible.    

[Bellhorn04]

1 minute ago, JoeBrady said:

IMHO, there will always be a GM willing to bet that he can turn any player around.  And I'd bet that more GMs will be worried about his injury than his performance.  There is a very good chance he will be a good to very-good hitter.

Captain Obvious here: "It's all about whether he can stay on the field."

[moonslav59]

12 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

Casas has averaged 33 per 600 ABs for his career.  That would've been good for #16 last year.

Couple that with his .348 career OBP, and it's a no brainer to pay Casas and hope he can regain most or all of what he has done in the past, He's even young enough to improve on it.

He had a .357 OBP before 2025 in an 840 PA sample size (.830 OPS.)

[moonslav59]

1 hour ago, FredLynn said:

And in days on the IL.

Thus spoke Zarapessimitra.

[moonslav59]

44 minutes ago, Bellhorn04 said:

He's at that point where a rebound would be a pleasant surprise.  But certainly not impossible.    

Pleasant, yes. Surprise, not to me.

[moonslav59]

12 hours ago, TedYazPapiMookie said:

With Contreras aging quickly (3 consecutive years of big drop offs in WAR) and his 34-year-old age, Casas needs to stay around for when Contreras doesn't perform.  Plus, if Yoshida and Abreu fail at the DH position, he could fill that slot as well.  Houck is a right-handed Sale so he should have been a no-brainer.  

His recent drop in WAR is almost 100% driven by his change from playing the highly valuable catcher position and then moving to play 1B, which is the lowest valued position next to DH.

fWAR assigned these value to him since 2020:

Defense: 4.5> 5.5> -1> -4> -2> -5 (plus first 2, then minus last 3)

Offense: 3>5>18>15>16>13 (low first 2, then pretty good & consistent since)

On their value page, the positional adjustment looks like this: 8>1>3>0>-10

His defense at 1B is fine. His bat has not shown steady decline:

wRC+: 111 from '20 to '21> 130 from '22-'23> 131 from '24-'26

OPS .807 up to 2021 (112 OPS+)

,815 '22 at age 30 (126 OPS+)

.826 '23 at 31 (123)

.848 '24 at 32 (138) shows he was aging very well)

.791 '25 at 33 (123) was a drop, but just one year and still not far from other recent years and way better than his pre age 30 years combined.

The 123 OPS+ was his 4th best in his 10 year career. His PAs were second most of his career.

I'm not too concerned.

 

 

[notin]

19 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

Houck was borderline.  I'm not sure hoe he claims a spot in the rotation, this year or next.  Casas was automatic.  Even if he starts off in AAA, he still has serious value.  From 2022-2024, at a minimum of 800 PAs, Casas is #36 out of 283 eligible.

The funny part is, over that period, there are two interesting guys tied with him-Schwarber and Ketel Marte, with Bregman being only one point behind, and Paredes only 4 points behind.

 #36 at what?  How are you ranking them?

[moonslav59]

9 minutes ago, notin said:

 #36 at what?  How are you ranking them?

I ran the numbers: he's 30th in ISO.

37th in SLG

23rd in OBP

29th in OPS

T33rd in wRC+ with Schwarber, KMarte and Lindor. One behind Alonso and two behind Witt & Machado.

[JoeBrady]

1 hour ago, notin said:

 #36 at what?  How are you ranking them?

wRC+.  I always ignored his eclectic behavior, because sometimes a relaxed player is a better player under pressure.  But when he told the press that he was already taking swings, and then had to tell them it was all in his mind, I honestly questioned whether or not Casas was connected to reality.

But that said, I see no doubt that he is a really good hitter.  Slow, injury-prone, no glove, kind of a disconnect with reality, sure, I can but all of those.  But if the stars align, and he gets 600 ABs at DH, I think he'll be a 120+ hitter.

[moonslav59]

44 minutes ago, JoeBrady said:

wRC+.  I always ignored his eclectic behavior, because sometimes a relaxed player is a better player under pressure.  But when he told the press that he was already taking swings, and then had to tell them it was all in his mind, I honestly questioned whether or not Casas was connected to reality.

But that said, I see no doubt that he is a really good hitter.  Slow, injury-prone, no glove, kind of a disconnect with reality, sure, I can but all of those.  But if the stars align, and he gets 600 ABs at DH, I think he'll be a 120+ hitter.

Well said. One can say Manny's relationship with reality was suspect, and sometimes I wondered if the disconnect can be helpful, as the mind may not be cluttered with thoughts and worries that interfere with focus on hitting that pesky round ball with a rounded object.

[notin]

2 hours ago, JoeBrady said:

wRC+.  I always ignored his eclectic behavior, because sometimes a relaxed player is a better player under pressure.  But when he told the press that he was already taking swings, and then had to tell them it was all in his mind, I honestly questioned whether or not Casas was connected to reality.

But that said, I see no doubt that he is a really good hitter.  Slow, injury-prone, no glove, kind of a disconnect with reality, sure, I can but all of those.  But if the stars align, and he gets 600 ABs at DH, I think he'll be a 120+ hitter.

See, all I needed was wRC.  I had no idea what you had then ranked..

 

 

[moonslav59]

27 minutes ago, notin said:

See, all I needed was wRC.  I had no idea what you had then ranked..

 

 

He's actually tied for 33 in wRC+.

I think some posters may have given up too early on a guy that has shown he can hit, hit with power and get on base.

Maybe it's the Dalbec effect. he had an .819 OPS after 545 PAs, but his OBP was just .308. He did have more HRs.

2020-2021 (500+ PAs)

ISO: .268 (13th)

wRC+: 114 (80th)

[JoeBrady]

56 minutes ago, notin said:

See, all I needed was wRC.  I had no idea what you had then ranked..

Sure, but you can't ask me what time it is and not expect me to tell you how the World Clock works.