There was a bit of a spring training kerfuffle the other day, when, according to the Boston Globe, Hall of Famer Jim Rice got into an argument with a “uniformed Red Sox staffer” … about hitting. It seems a Sox minor leaguer asked Rice a question on that very topic, and Rice, who knows a thing or two about hitting, answered the question. Whereupon the “uniformed Red Sox staffer” made it known that what Rice said isn’t what he and all the other “uniformed Red Sox staffers” are teaching the kids these days.

Rice, who didn’t take kindly to being approached by one of the analytics whiz kids, isn’t the only Red Sox legend to be speaking his mind at spring training. Which brings us to 25-year-old Triston Casas, a veteran of three seasons in the big leagues — one of them a one-month Welcome to The Show in September 2022, and one of them a 2024 campaign that was limited to just 63 games as he recovered from torn cartilage in his left rib cage.

In other words, Casas has played one full season in the big leagues. And it was a nice preview-of-coming-attractions kind of season, with Casas hitting 24 home runs with a .263/.367/.490 slash line. It earned him a third-place finish in 2023 American League Rookie of the Year balloting behind Baltimore Orioles infielder Gunnar Henderson (the runaway winner) and Cleveland Guardians right-hander Tanner Bibee.

It’s been a sluggish spring training for Casas so far. He returned to camp on Sunday after missing time with a stomach bug. Red Sox manager Alex Cora says he expects Casas to be back in the lineup on Tuesday. He’s played just five games, with one hit in 11 at-bats.

• After Rafael Devers gathered the Boston media by the talkin’ bench out back of the Red Sox clubhouse at JetBlue Park to announce that he, and not the newly signed Alex Bregman, is the third baseman of this nine, Casas felt compelled to insert himself into the discussion. “I think it’s Raffy Devers’ position,” Casas said. “I think he’s the third baseman. And at that point, that’s where it stands. He’s done it for a really long time now. And I think he’s only getting better at that position. I think his defense is getting better every single year.”

• Casas is bringing a bucket of cold water to all those sizzling hot takes about Red Sox prospects Kristian Campbell, Roman Anthony and Marcelo Mayer. Asked if he’d put the three kids on the Opening Day roster if he were in charge, Casas said, “No. I think we’ve got some grown men up there right now that need to iron some things out. We need to show up and see what that first little taste of us altogether looks like. I think their time is going to come. And it could be earlier rather than later. But I think for right now the roster is beautiful. It’s organized great. And it’s structured really well.”

Both of these points by Casas are clear misses. While it’s swell to see him have Devers’ back — we love that quality in professional athletes, right? — the fact is that having played a position for “a really long time now” shouldn’t be a guarantee of continued assignments at said position. If that were the case, Mike Greenwell would still be playing left field for the Red Sox. As for Devers getting better “every single year,” Casas wasn’t around enough last year to present himself as the final word on what, if any, improvements Devers was making at third base.

As for Campbell, Anthony and Mayer, there was no plan for all three of them to break camp with the big club. For Casas to talk about the “grown men” already on the team is pointless.

I’m not a believer in the shut-up-and-play point of view, and you shouldn’t be, either. You should want your players to talk, to share their opinions, to be open. The next move in this chess game between player and fan (and player and media) should be to agree or disagree, not to wipe all the pieces off the board and tell the athlete to shut his yap.

Now, for those who believe only athletes who have paid their dues should be able to speak up, history is not in full agreement. Since the dawn of sports history, managers and coaches have had to deal with the brash rookie who has chosen to say things, do things, that run counter to locker room convention, sometimes to the point of being a royal pain.

Ted Williams, anyone?

That’s Theodore Samuel Williams, as in Teddy Ballgame. The Thumper. The Kid. The Greatest Hitter That Ever Lived. This fella was kicking up dust before he ever played a game in the big leagues, such as that comment he made to a clubhouse attendant during spring training in 1938 when Williams, still just 19, was shipped off to the minors. In “Hitter: Ted Williams, The Life and Turmoils of Ted Williams,” the late Ed Linn writes about how Williams seethed over being ridden and big-leagued by Sox veterans Joe Vosmik, Doc Cramer and Ben Chapman. “I’ll get back,” Williams told clubbie Johnny Orlando. “Tell that to all of them. Vosmik, Cramer and Chapman think I’m just a fresh, young punk, don’t they? Well, you can tell them I’ll be back, and I’ll make more money in a single year than the three of them put together.”

There’s also the story about Red Sox second baseman Bobby Doerr telling Williams, “Wait’ll you see Foxx hit,” referring to Sox slugger Jimmie Foxx. To which Williams is said to have replied, “Wait’ll Foxx sees me hit.”

Writer Leigh Montville, in his Williams biography (“Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero”), uses the anecdote while noting it “… may or may not actually have happened, but it captured the moment perfectly.”

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The point here is that young Ted Williams talked so much smack that it’s difficult to separate legend from fact. And if your quick rebuttal is to scream that Triston Casas is no Teddy Ballgame, well, neither was Ted Williams when he was mouthing off during spring training in 1938. (Footnote: Williams went on to obliterate American Association pitching while playing for the Minneapolis Millers in 1938, hitting 43 home runs with a .366-.481-.701 slash line.)

The Red Sox will be a better ballclub in 2025 if a healthy Casas builds on his offensive successes of 2023 and improves his glove work at first base. And, yes, the Sox will be a more entertaining club if Casas keeps on being Casas, even if it sometimes requires lots of grinning and bearing it from Cora and the clubhouse. But it wouldn’t hurt him to maybe workshop his topics now and then. Being flat-out wrong takes the shine off of brashness.

As for Jim Rice, here’s hoping the minor leaguer who asked him the question about hitting paid attention to the answer.