Normally, Yankees fans hate trading with the Red Sox. In recent years, New York has seen prospects Richard Fitts and Carlos Narvaez find some success in Boston after inter-division deals. Not to mention, former Yankees such as Rob Refsnyder, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman have made impacts with their rival … while Alex Verdugo was the case of much anguish last year.

But this scenario is a bit different. On Friday night, the Red Sox likely lost slugging first baseman Triston Casas for the entire season after he injured his knee tripping over Twins first baseman Ty France’s foot running down the line. Casas collapsed in a heap and was eventually carted off the field. There’s no official diagnosis, but it doesn’t look good.

So how does that involve the Yankees? Well, shortly after Casas’ injury, Red Sox fans all over social media started asking about Dom Smith’s whereabouts. And what do you know! He’s with the Yankees, stashed at Triple-A Scranton in case New York needs the infield help at some point.

Why were Red Sox fans asking about Smith? In 2024, the former first-round pick logged 84 games in Boston and hit .237 with a .706 OPS. He wasn’t spectacular, but he had his moments, and he filled in admirably when Casas was on the shelf with a rib injury. Smith was DFA’d in August (much to the disappointment of the fanbase) when the Sox got back to full strength, and he finished out the year with no job after getting DFA’d by the Reds in September.

During the offseason, there were rumors of the Sox reuniting with Smith, but they never made the move and the Yankees signed him in January. Smith went on to have a promising spring training with the Bombers, but the presence of Paul Goldschmidt and the emergence of Ben Rice made Smith expendable. When he opted out of his minor league contract, the Sox rumors surfaced again for a moment, but Smith ended up re-signing with New York.

Right now, Smith is struggling at Triple-A, hitting just .202 with a .561 OPS in 23 games. He has only one home run and eight RBI. That aspect of the situation doesn’t give the Yankees leverage, but the Red Sox’s backup option at first base right now is Romy Gonzalez. It’s possible Alex Cora works in Connor Wong or Rob Refsnyder at the position to keep productive bats in the lineup, but that would be sacrificing defense in a major way.

The Yankees need some pitching at the moment, so perhaps they can pilfer the Sox for an arm if Boston values Smith as much as the fans on social media do. It’s doubtful that this happens due to the current position player logjam the Sox are already dealing with, but they’ve made plenty of boneheaded decisions over the last couple years, so we wouldn’t put it past them.