Craig Breslow says Triston Casas could begin rehab assignment soon

The Red Sox have lost five of six games since the All-Star break, but remain very much in the playoff hunt, sitting just one game out of the final American League wild card spot. Chief baseball officer Craig Breslow reiterated on The Greg Hill Show Thursday morning that he is looking to add to the team before Tuesday’s trade deadline despite the recent skid.

There’s one internal addition that would be a big help, though, and that would be the eventual return of Triston Casas. The 24-year-old first baseman has not played since April 20 due to a cartilage tear in his ribcage.

Updates on when Casas might be able to return have been vague, but manager Alex Cora offered some optimism earlier this week when he said that Casas appeared to be close to “turning a corner.”

Breslow provided a further update during Thursday morning’s “Front Office Report” on The Greg Hill Show, saying that Casas could begin a rehab assignment as soon as the end of this week.

“He's made quite a bit of progress over the last week or so, where he's taking swings at full intensity and taking full batting practice,” Breslow said of Casas. “So, I think he could find himself in rehab games pretty quickly, as quickly as potentially even the end of this week, which is a great turnaround from where we were at the timeline we were talking about a few weeks ago.

“I think we've all talked, Alex and I, about the sensitive nature of this rehab in that there are some feelings and tolerance that Triston needs to work through, but we've been really, really excited about the last week or so and hope to see him in rehab games here shortly.”

That is certainly the most encouraging update yet, although it doesn’t necessarily mean that Casas is particularly close to returning to major-league action. Given how much time he has missed and the “sensitive nature” of the injury, as Breslow put it, Casas’ rehab assignment could be a lengthy one.