Trio of Red Sox prospects take center stage in Fort Myers

FORT MYERS, Fla. – On any given day on the back fields near JetBlue Park, you might see three-quarters of the future Red Sox infield being put through its paces. No deals are imminent to make room just yet, but it’s not hard to see Boston’s last three first-round picks, all high schoolers, taking the field at Fenway together down the road.

Triston Casas came first, the No. 26 pick in 2018. He’s the most advanced, having reached Triple-A and adding games in a very successful stint in the Arizona Fall League while fitting in the Olympics as well. While many were surprised when the Red Sox took Nick Yorke in the first round of the 2020 Draft (the club didn’t have a first-rounder in 2019), No. 17 overall, he’s made it look like some seriously astute scouting. He played across two levels of A ball as a teenager and finished with a combined .928 OPS. Marcelo Mayer is the most recent addition, with Boston ecstatic the player many thought was the top prospect in the 2021 Draft class was there for them at No. 4 overall. He has just 26 games of Florida Complex League experience on his resume and is experiencing his first Spring Training.

One of the silver linings of how camp opened, before a new CBA was ratified, was that teams had to be creative in their work. That often meant mixing players of different levels together more than usual. In a typical spring, it’s possible Casas and Mayer would not have interacted all that much. But the Red Sox mixed everyone together and have liked the results.

“I think they really feed off each other,” Red Sox farm director Brian Abraham said. “In a lot of ways, a lot of their strengths are similar. They all work incredibly hard. They all have high expectations for themselves; they also know that there's a lot of room for improvement.

“When we work with them on a daily basis, it's conversations back and forth about what works for them, ideas on our end, ideas on their end. It's a working relationship with them to improve in all aspects of the game, so it's nice to see them talk together and grow together.”

• Q&A with Triston Casas

Casas is 22, Yorke turns 20 next month and Mayer will play all of this season at age 19. But despite the age differences and varying degrees of experience, it hasn’t been difficult to build bridges among all three. That bodes well for those hoping to see Casas at first, Yorke at second and Mayer at short in Boston.

“All three are mature beyond their years, which makes it a lot easier to have really strong conversations about improvement and adjustments,” Abraham said. “They understand when you say, ‘Hey, you guys are really good players, but to get to the elite level, to be able to compete in Boston on a day-to-day basis, there's a lot of work to do. And I think they're very open to that, which is, from our end, incredibly exciting.”

Camp standouts: The prospect return from the Hunter Renfroe deal

The Red Sox got two prospects, as well as big leaguer Jackie Bradley Jr., from Milwaukee in return for Renfroe right before the lockout started. The bigger name was Alex Binelas, the Louisville third baseman who had first-round potential out of 2021 Draft before a very slow start knocked him down to the third. He rebounded late and carried that over to his summer debut in the Brewers organization, with a .309/.390/.583 line.

The other prospect, David Hamilton, has been a bit further under the radar, a middle infielder taken out of the University of Texas in the sixth round of the 2019 Draft. Speed is his carrying tool and he swiped 52 bags between High-A and Double-A last year, his first real full season of pro ball. Both are making a very strong first impression in their first camp with the Red Sox.

“To get to see them, get to meet them, allow them to be integrated to the organization, they’ve both been really exciting to watch so far,” Abraham said.

The pair bring very different things to the table. Binelas’ best tool is his power and even in his up-and-down final year at Louisville, he hit 19 homers and then added nine more as a pro last summer. There are questions about his defensive home, though Abraham has liked how he’s moved on the infield so far. Hamilton, as noted, is all about his speed and energy.

“With Binelas, we've seen the athleticism at third and the power off the bat,” Abraham said. “He really drives the baseball. Hamilton has a ton of athleticism and a ton of speed. It seems like every time he gets on base in our intersquads, he's trying to take a bag, which is incredibly exciting. And his glove up the middle has been fun to watch.

“It's always fun to watch new players that have an understanding of pro ball and then come to a new place and get to show off their talents. And you can see the reasons why we acquired them.”

Prospect we’ll be talking about in 2023: Brayan Bello

The only reason we won’t be talking about the talented right-hander as a prospect is if he’s graduated off the list and helping the Red Sox big league staff, which isn’t out of the question.

Bello has had back-to-back big years in the Minors, with the shutdown between them doing nothing to derail his progress. He made it to Double-A last year, pitched in the Futures Game and was added to the 40-man roster. He’s on the brink of being a Top 100 arm and if he doesn’t break through to Boston, it would surprise no one if he’s listed among the more exciting pitching prospects in the game at this time next year. Abraham’s just happy to have him back in Fort Myers.

“It’s nice to be able to talk about him and we’re excited to get him here in camp,” Abraham said. “It stunk not to be involved in his offseason workouts and progression but the strides he made last year, where he started in High-A and, for the lack of a better, word, dominated. Then he went to Double-A and he did a lot of the same.

“There are certainly some inconsistencies as a young pitcher, but I think as he has a better understanding of this stuff, effort level, feel for some of the secondary pitches and particularly his changeup and be able to challenge the strike zone, the sky's the limit with a guy like that.”

Something to prove: Jay Groome

Another pitcher Abraham is thrilled to have back in tow post-lockout, especially given how hard it was for the former first-round pick to get needed development on the mound prior to 2021. Between 2016 and 2020, Groome had thrown just 66 competitive innings, dealing with lat and forearm issues, then Tommy John surgery and, of course, the pandemic shutdown. Fully healthy in 2021, he started to show what all the fuss was about when he was coming out of the New Jersey high school ranks in the Draft class of 2016, leading the system in strikeouts and making it to Double-A.

“This is a really important year, that second year, where health isn’t the issue,” Abraham said. “Now it’s about pitching and being able to talk about pitching and about becoming a big leaguer is a nice conversation to have rather than saying, ‘Hopefully, you’re healthy this year.’

“I think he's gotten over that hump, mentally and physically. We're excited to see him compete again at the upper levels. A left-handed starter who has four pitches, who can pump it into the mid- 90s? That’s a pretty interesting guy for us.”