The Boston Red Sox front office dreamed that this would be the year that Triston Casas would fully blossom, mashing 30 homers and fully exploiting Fenway Park’s dimensions in a way that other left-handed hitters have. But Casas is out for the year after rupturing his left patellar tendon — and now manager Alex Cora must find a replacement.

But this is not a situation in which the Red Sox have to scramble for help outside the organization. Evaluators with other teams scan Boston’s big league roster and organizational depth and believe the Red Sox are in a strong position, with a lot of options.

Based on feedback from front office-types, scouts and major league staffers, here are the best first-base options for the Red Sox, in order of collective preference of those we spoke to.

1. Rafael Devers

As of Tuesday afternoon, Cora said he hadn’t asked Devers about a move to first, and some rival evaluators believe that makes sense due to the political complications. After Devers was surprised by the late-winter signing of Alex Bregman and initially rejected the idea of moving from third base, Devers eventually went along with a shift to designated hitter.

“He already made one big change, so it’d be tough to ask him to do another in-season,” one evaluator said. “Leave him at DH and let him get comfortable there.”

Said another: “He’s gone all-in at designated hitter.”

But that doesn’t preclude Devers from knocking on Cora’s door and telling his manager he would like to move, which could be the best-case scenario for the Red Sox. And in doing this, Devers could be embracing the inevitable — because eventually, he’s probably going to move to first base. Devers is in the third year of a 10-year, $313.5 million contract that runs through 2033.

“Are you ever going to move him back to third base after getting him off that spot?” one rival official asked rhetorically. “And he’s too young [28] to be settling into a full-time DH role. It’s better for him if you get him out in the field.”

It doesn’t have to happen all at once. If Devers volunteers, he could start taking ground balls for a week or two and then gradually play at first, getting back into the kind of shape necessary to play in the field regularly.

There would be natural concerns about his defense at a new position, but a couple of evaluators noted that Devers’ primary defensive problem at third base was in throwing, something he would do far less at first. At the very least, Devers would be wholly accustomed to the speed of the game for a corner infielder.

“I don’t think he would be bad over there,” one evaluator said. “It’s not like he was a total zero at third base. He was OK at times.”

If Devers were to play first, that would open the DH spot for Cora to use as a resting spot for position players dealing with weariness or nagging injuries and creating an opening for Roman Anthony or Marcelo Mayer to be promoted.

2. Marcelo Mayer

His future with the Red Sox is as a middle infielder, but there is precedent in Boston’s history of using a star prospect as a stop-gap solution. In 2013, the Red Sox needed a third baseman and promoted shortstop Xander Bogaerts to play the spot, and they went on to win the World Series. For Mayer to move from shortstop to first base would be a more dramatic change, but one staffer believes he could do this with relative ease.

“He’s athletic enough to do it,” the staffer said, “and he’d hold down the position offensively. You’d have some growing pains on defense, but he’s played on the right side of the infield before [at second] and he would hit enough to make it work.

“That’s the thing — they need offense from that position. If they weren’t trying to win, you wouldn’t think about it. But they are trying to win and it’s something you consider.”

Mayer is currently playing for Triple-A Worcester, though Red Sox fans are eager to see him with the major league team.

“It’d work for [Mayer] because it would get him to the big leagues right away,” the staffer concluded.

3. Give Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro a full shot to share the first base job

Gonzalez and Toro have been the two players to get reps at first base since Casas went down Friday night, with Gonzalez owning the biggest share of those — though, he exited Wednesday night’s win and is day-to-day after colliding with Texas Rangers first baseman Josh Smith while trying to beat out an infield hit.

Gonzalez is a right-handed hitter who’s been a good player for the Red Sox over the past two seasons and is batting .308 in 58 plate appearances this season. The utilityman had played only 20 games at first base at the big league level coming into this season, so the best that Cora could hope for would probably be league average defense. Gonzalez doesn’t hit for much power, but he will get on base regularly, if he can stay healthy. Toro is a switch-hitter who has played 368 games with five different teams, generating a career adjusted OPS+ of 80.

However, it seems more likely the Red Sox look for more thump at what is a power position.

4. Move Kristian Campbell from second base to first, with Marcelo Mayer getting a shot to win the second base job

Campbell is seen by one scout as “primarily an offensive player.”

“He’s going to hit,” the scout said. “He’s not especially good at any one spot defensively. He’s moved around a lot in his career, and he’d be fine at first.”

Campbell has played the infield plenty in his time in baseball, and at 6-foot-3 and 200 pounds, he would present a good target for other infielders at first. And Mayer did have a brief audition at second base in spring training.

However, one evaluator said that Campbell has already been learning one new position this season and asking him to learn another could be too much — and the Red Sox might be better just leaving him at second and allowing him to get comfortable at the plate.

5. Move Trevor Story to first base and promote Mayer to play shortstop

This was raised by ESPN analyst Eduardo Perez on the “Baseball Tonight” podcast. But as difficult as it was to ask Devers to move off third base, it might be even more complicated getting Story to buy into the idea of moving to first. He’s under contract for two more seasons after this year at $25 million annually, and he’s been a shortstop for almost all of his 10-year career.

Additionally: If the Red Sox are going to affect a major change, they’ll do it to enhance their offense — and Story hasn’t been a big run-producer. Over 105 games in the past three seasons, he’s slashing .233/.287/.354.

6. Move one of the outfielders to first — either Wilyer Abreu or rising star prospect Roman Anthony

Some rival evaluators believe this is the worst possible option because you would be asking two high-end outfielders to learn to play infield on the fly.

“What a waste that would be,” one scout said. “Anthony is going to be a star — a guy who hits .280 with 28-30 homers, and he can really play the outfield. A total waste. They’ve got enough guys in the infield to move somebody else there.”

7. Vaughn Grissom

The infielder acquired in the trade of Chris Sale to the Atlanta Braves, Grissom was hurt much of last year, batting .191 in 31 games for the Red Sox. In Triple-A this season, he’s hitting a respectable .260/.343/.398. But two evaluators with other teams believe that there wouldn’t be much of a difference between the Gonzalez/Toro platoon and what Grissom could provide offensively.

“They’d probably just go with the guys who are in the big leagues already,” one staffer said.

With all four second-round series officially underway after the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets played Game 1 on Wednesday, we now have a sense of all eight clubs. Will the two home teams from Tuesday night reverse course after losing in Game 1?

First up are the Washington Capitals, who lost 2-1 in OT to the Carolina Hurricanes; those two square off again Thursday at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. The nightcap features the Vegas Golden Knights hosting the Edmonton Oilers (9:30 p.m. ET, ESPN) after the visitors prevailed 4-2 on Tuesday.

Read on for game previews with statistical insights from ESPN Research, a recap of what went down in Wednesday’s games and the three stars of Wednesday from Arda Öcal.

Matchup notes

Carolina Hurricanes at Washington Capitals
Game 2 | 7 p.m. ET | ESPN

The odds have shifted sharply after the Canes took Game 1 in D.C.: the opening series odds were Hurricanes -195, Capitals +165. Now it’s Hurricanes -425, Capitals +300.

Jaccob Slavin had the OT game winner in Game 1, his first career playoff winning goal. There have been three other defensemen in Hurricanes/Whalers franchise history with a playoff overtime goal: Niclas Wallin (who scored three), plus one each for Tim Gleason and Ian Cole.

The Canes allowed 14 shots on goal in Game 1, the fewest allowed by any team in the playoffs this season and the second fewest allowed by Carolina in a playoff game in franchise history (12, in the 2024 first round vs. the Islanders).

Alex Ovechkin was held to one shot on goal in Game 1, snapping a streak of 18 games (regular season and playoffs) with multiple shots on goal. The last time he was held to one or fewer shots on goal in consecutive games was last year’s playoff series against the Rangers.

Pierre-Luc Dubois has now gone 10 games without scoring a goal (dating back to the regular season). His last goal? April 10 against the Hurricanes.

Edmonton Oilers at Vegas Golden Knights
Game 2 | 9:30 p.m. ET | ESPN

This series opened as a pick ’em, with both teams at -110 odds to win. After the Oilers’ Game 1 victory, they are now the favorites at -225, while the Golden Knights are now +190.

Connor McDavid‘s 39 playoff goals are seventh in Oilers history, behind Jari Kurri (92), Glenn Anderson (81), Wayne Gretzky (81), Mark Messier (80), Esa Tikkanen (51) and current teammate Leon Draisaitl (45).

Edmonton defenseman Evan Bouchard scored six goals in the Oilers’ run to Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final, and he already has four goals through seven games this postseason.

With two goals in Game 1, Mark Stone now has 36 playoff goals since joining the Knights beginning in 2018-19. That is tied with Edmonton’s Zach Hyman for fifth in the NHL during that span, behind Nathan MacKinnon (50), Draisaitl (39), Mikko Rantanen (39) and Brayden Point (37).

According to Stathletes, the line of Stone, Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev has allowed more scoring chances against (seven) than it has generated (six) during the playoffs. In the regular season, the differential was 112-77 in Vegas’ favor with those three on the ice.

Öcal’s three stars from Wednesday

Another NHL record for “Moose.” He became the first player in NHL history with two single-period hat tricks in the same postseason. There have been only three other players with multiple playoff hat tricks in their career: Wayne Gretzky (three), Maurice Richard (three), Tim Kerr (two).

The former Canadiens captain scored the first goal and added an assist on William Nylander‘s goal in the second. He now has three-game point streak for the first time since 2021.

Scored the clutch third-period goal 17 seconds after the Panthers had tied the score, taking Game 2 and giving the Leafs a 2-0 series lead.

Wednesday’s recaps

Toronto Maple Leafs 4, Florida Panthers 3
TOR leads 2-0 | Game 3 Friday

With neither team willing to give an inch, Game 2 was another close final result. The Panthers struck first in this one, via a first-period power-play goal from Aleksander Barkov, answered later in the first by Max Pacioretty. Old Maple Leafs nemesis Brad Marchand scored 15 seconds into the second, followed by William Nylander notching his sixth of the postseason at 4:18. The score would remain tied until Max Domi scored his first regulation goal of the playoffs with under three minutes left in the second. Anton Lundell drew the Panthers even at 3-3 early in the third, but new father Mitch Marner scored the game-winning goal just 17 seconds later. Full recap.

play

Mitch Marner answers Panthers’ tying goal to clinch Game 2

Anton Lundell and Mitch Marner notch goals 17 seconds apart as Toronto maintains the lead.

Dallas Stars 3, Winnipeg Jets 2
DAL leads 1-0 | Game 2 Friday

As has happened in many Game 1s this postseason, the two teams went scoreless in the first period, measuring one another for the fight. Winnipeg’s Nino Niederreiter got the party started 3:30 into the second, but then the Mikko Rantanen Show began. The Finnish forward scored a natural hat trick — that’s two straight games with a hat trick — putting the Stars up 3-1. Mark Scheifele scored his third of the postseason at the tail end of the second, but the Jets could not get the equalizer despite a furious effort in the third. Full recap.

play

Stars desperately defend net in Jets 3rd-period onslaught

Jake Oettinger and company crowd the goal to keep the Jets from tying the score.

NASCAR’s Championship Weekend is headed back to the racetrack it called home for nearly two decades, but it won’t stay long, as the sanctioning body moves to a new rotation scheduling model for its season finale.

On Tuesday, NASCAR announced that Homestead-Miami Speedway, which hosted the conclusion of the NASCAR postseason from 2002 to 2019, will do so once again in 2026, as NASCAR’s three national series – Craftsman Trucks, Xfinity and Cup — crown champions over a three-day weekend, Nov. 6-8.

But the return to South Florida will only be the first year of the annual rotation of NASCAR Championship Weekend, to be held at to-be-determined locations each fall. The move is inspired by so-called “stick-and-ball” title games such as the Super Bowl, College Football Playoff National Championship and NCAA Final Fours.

In recent years, NASCAR has experimented with moving around its two exhibition events, as the preseason Clash went from Daytona International Speedway, its home 1979-2021, to a short track constructed inside the Los Angeles Coliseum in 2022-23 and Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, on Feb. 2 of this year. Since 2020, the NASCAR All-Star Race has also rotated, leaving its birthplace and longtime home track Charlotte Motor Speedway to race at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee, Texas Motor Speedway and the resurrected North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina.

Adding that to NASCAR’s frequent shuffling of its first nine playoff races, it all feels as if it were one big test session for this, an overhaul of the biggest weekend of NASCAR’s year, when its three national champions are crowned.

“Yes, mixing it up, and I think you are going to see different teams and different drivers as we move this championship around,” said Ben Kennedy in a phone conversation with ESPN. He is NASCAR EVP, chief venue & racing innovation officer, great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France, and a former racer in Trucks and Xfinity. “Some are going to rise to the occasion, and others aren’t. It’s going to be interesting to see how that plays out. We still want to keep the playoff schedule. We want to keep a lot of that intact. But you’ve seen over the past few years some small nuances and changes we’ve met, we’ve created in it, just to keep that level of unpredictability high.”

This marks a significant departure from NASCAR’s long-established regular-season stock car racing scheduling model. In 2020, the finale weekend was moved from 1.5-mile Homestead-Miami Speedway to the flat, quirky 1-mile Phoenix Raceway amid NASCAR’s fan-driven push toward shorter tracks. It has resided there ever since, slated for this year’s Championship Weekend Oct. 31-Nov. 2.

But before Homestead-Miami’s 18-year stint as Championship Weekend host, Atlanta Motor Speedway was home to the season’s last race for 14 years, the only exception being 2001, when New Hampshire Motor Speedway had its fall date pushed to the end of the Cup Series calendar due to the attacks of 9/11. From 1974 to 1986, the season always ended in Southern California, either on the Indianapolis Motor Speedway clone of Ontario or on the road course of Riverside two racetracks that no longer exist.

Kennedy explained that the details of how tracks will be selected to host Championship Weekend in the post-2026 rotation are being sorted out by a NASCAR industry working group. But he also listed criteria that included a warm weather climate in late fall, adjacency to a large metro area, updated facilities prepared to handle the sport’s crowning events and established racetracks instead of unfamiliar wild cards where teams don’t have at least some history. He also said he did not foresee the roulette wheel-style “plate racing” of Daytona International Speedway or Talladega Superspeedway having a place in the finale, even after they have had previous turns in the postseason, including crucial cutoff races.

There are 28 tracks that host Cup Series events. NASCAR wholly owns 11, including Homestead-Miami and Phoenix. Speedway Motorsports Incorporated owns a dozen facilities. The remaining five are independently owned or are operated by NASCAR in conjunction with other entities. Based on Kennedy’s description of what constitutes warm weather climate (“You could draw a line just a little bit north of the Rockingham [North Carolina] Speedway”) then roughly a quarter of those tracks would seem to be in play for a future Championship Weekend.

“A big part of this is also hearing feedback from the industry, be it teams, drivers, broadcast partners, industry partners and, importantly, the fans,” Kennedy said. “It was the fans who ranked Homestead-Miami Speedway as the No. 1 track that they would like to see the championship at.”

As for Phoenix Raceway, which Kennedy says received $100 million in capital improvements to bolster its role as the championship anchor, will continue to host two Cup Series events, as it has since 2005. It will be included in the Round of 8, essentially the semifinals, of the 2026 NASCAR playoffs, the specific date to be announced with the remainder of next year’s schedule at a later date.

“Phoenix set the bar really high since that weekend moved from here to there,” Homestead-Miami Speedway president Guillermo Santa Cruz said. “But now to kick off this rotation, to be the first one up in this in this new format and, you know, set the pace for it. It’s an honor for us to have it back and to kick it off.”