BOSTON -- Standing on crutches and wearing a large cast on the surgically repaired patellar tendon in his left knee, Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas spoke to the media on Tuesday for the first time since his devastating injury that happened a month ago.
Having several weeks to digest the unfortunate event, Casas acknowledged the tough spot he is in, but added that his plan is to be in the lineup on Opening Day 2026.
“I've heard different amounts of months [as a timetable],” Casas said. “I haven't heard anything over a year, though, so as of right now, our goal is Opening Day next year. I’m just going to take it slow, going to spend the winter in Fort Myers rehabbing. And until then, just try to stay in a positive mindset. I know there's a lot of healing that's done outside of the training table. So I think just trying to take it one day at a time, be positive and maintain a good headspace is going to be important as well.”
Unfortunately for Casas, he has experience at coming back from long-term injuries. He missed four months with a left rib cage injury last year.
“I think this is a completely different injury in terms of timeline,” said Casas. “Last year, I was feeling like I was going to feel good every single day coming to the yard, wanting to swing a bat, wanting to hit and then it not happening. But at least now, I kind of know what I'm getting myself into mentally.
“I have a timeline. We have checkpoints that we want to get to and stuff. So I think this process is going to be a little more mentally easing than last year. Still physically, though, it's gonna be the toughest thing that I've gone through so far in my career.”
Casas knew he was in trouble the second he hit the ground.
“I just asked our trainer to get me a cart. I knew something wasn't normal,” Casas said. "So, I tried to stay calm, but I knew it was pretty severe, considering the options, but, yeah, it was painful. It was uncomfortable. But I knew pretty much immediately [because it] felt like somebody hit me with a sledgehammer.”
The first couple of days after the injury were not pleasant mentally or physically.
“A lot of anger, a lot of frustration. I had a lot of goals for myself this year that I'm not going to be able to accomplish,” said Casas. “So back to the drawing board. I'll have a full offseason to recover, get back to the caliber of player I hope to be and let's try to attack it next year. But, yeah, it was frustrating just thinking about how everything unfolded and how I wanted to contribute. ... I think, all things considered, I'm doing a little better now than I was a couple days after the surgery.”
The Red Sox have struggled (29-33 entering Tuesday's action) not only without Casas, but also with third baseman Alex Bregman’s significant right quad injury keeping him out of the mix for the next several weeks.
Casas admits it’s not easy watching games he can’t play in, but he will continue to do so anyway.
“I'm still sticking it out, I’m with them every single day, every single step of the way,” Casas said. “And yeah, we're in this together no matter what. They have my back. I've been feeling their support. I feel like I have to watch the games.”
While Casas was in good spirits on Tuesday, he knows there will be mental ups and downs during the journey.
“I'm living my worst nightmare and this is the worst case scenario for any type of player to go through a recovery that's double digits months long,” Casas said. “But going through it now, I feel like I'm going to get better as a consequence of it. ... It's part of running hard down the line, part of just playing the game how you feel like it should be.
“I wouldn't change anything about it. That's just a move that I've done thousands of times. I can't say I would have done anything differently or have any regrets about it. So it's just onwards from here.”