Red Sox first baseman Triston Casas is resting at his Boston home after undergoing what the team described as a “successful” surgical repair of his ruptured left patellar tendon at Mass General Hospital on Sunday.

Casas suffered the injury during last Friday’s game against the Minnesota Twins. The Red Sox know his season is over, but beyond that his manager said Tuesday that he wasn’t sure how long the journey back will be. It’s unclear if Casas will be ready to participate in spring training 2026; there’s a possibility he could miss a significant chunk of next season, as well.

The first step is rest and recovery from the surgery, which his manager said isn’t going so well.

“I talked to him today,” Cora said before the series opener with the visiting Texas Rangers. “In pain, a lot of pain. It’s been a challenge to sleep. But for how bad it is, it wasn’t the worst-case scenario. That’s what he expressed to me, that’s what the doctor said.”

When Casas missed over three months of the ‘24 season with a rib cartilage injury, he still came to most home games. It’s different this time around, as this injury required surgery. Cora wasn’t sure when Casas will be able to come back to the ballpark. For now, the Sox are going to him. Cora said their trainers were going over “to clean up his stitches, all that stuff” this week.

In Casas’ absence, Romy Gonzalez and Abraham Toro are platooning at first base. Toro made his Red Sox debut as a pinch-hitter on Sunday, and was in Tuesday’s starting lineup for the series opener against the visiting Texas Rangers.

“(When I) saw him from afar, from the other side, a good at-bat, good defender, versatile,” Cora said of his first impressions of Toro, who debuted with the ’19 Houston Astros, and also played for the Seattle Mariners, Milwaukee Brewers, and Oakland A’s in his first six MLB seasons. “He has a pretty good idea, offensively; he knows what he wants to do. He hunts pitches in certain areas and he executes. He’s patient enough that he can slow it down, and he did an amazing job in spring training, got off to a great start in Triple-A.”

“He’s a big leaguer in a championship-caliber team. He’s been in organizations that have struggled, others have been good. He’s been part of that,” Cora continued. “One of the reasons you sign these guys is, if something happens, you can count on them. They can come here and contribute, and that’s what we expect from him.”

Astros reunion

After spending parts of the 2019-21 seasons together in Houston, Alex Bregman is uniquely qualified to talk about what Toro brings to the Red Sox.

Ahead of Toro’s first start for Boston on Tuesday, Bregman gave his once-again teammate a rave review.

“He’s a baseball player, competitor, he’s gonna do whatever it takes to help the team win,” Bregman told the Herald, “a guy with pop from both sides of the plate, will throw a great at-bat on you, play good defense at multiple positions across the field, he’s a tough out, and just adding a tough out to the lineup is awesome.”

Bregman played the vast majority of his nine-year Astros career at third (1,030 games), but he also took several turns at shortstop (129 games). One of those contests stands out to him: Sept. 1, 2019, just over a week after Toro’s big-league debut, when the Astros were playing in his native Canada. Starting at shortstop, Bregman watched his new teammate make the difference defensively and offensively in an enormous 2-0 win.

“(Justin) Verlander threw a no-hitter in Toronto,” Bregman recalled, “Toro hit a home run, actually, to give us the lead, and the last play of the game was hit to him, too, and he made the play.”

“Just being his teammate for so long, I know how much preparation and hard work he puts into the game, and how focused he is on a daily basis, so I love being his teammate,” Bregman said.

He’s confident Red Sox fans will love Toro, too.

“He plays hard, he loves the game, he plays the game the right way. He’s a hard worker, and that will show,” he said.

Cora doubles down on Devers

With the front office exploring long-term options for first base, chief baseball officer Craig Breslow didn’t explicitly rule out a Rafael Devers experiment when taking questions on Saturday. That topic continues to be a non-starter with his manager, though.

In fact, Cora’s pregame session on Tuesday was not unlike the slugger’s first media availability of spring training, when he gave the same one-word answer to several queries about his future at third base. Asked if he and his new designated hitter have had any conversations about first base, Cora said, “No.”

Does the manager plan to have any? “No.”

Hendriks rounding into form

The Red Sox bullpen has underperformed through the first month, and over the past week top setup men Garrett Whitlock and Justin Slaten have particularly struggled.

The good news is the Red Sox might have a solution already on the roster. After missing almost two years with Tommy John surgery and then the first three weeks of this season with right elbow inflammation, Liam Hendriks is looking more like his old self. The 36-year-old right-hander boasts a 3.00 ERA through his first six appearances, with no earned runs allowed in the last five. In his last two outings, in particular, the veteran boasted much-improved stuff.

Originally viewed as a contender for the closer job entering spring training, could Hendriks be ready to take on more high-leverage situations? Cora said Hendriks will probably need more time, but that with each day he’s pitching more like the guy who was once among the most dominant relievers in baseball.

“The more he goes out there, the better he’s going to be,” Cora said. “We have to take it one day at a time and see how he feels, two out of three days and see how he bounces back, and the next thing is back to back. It’s a lot different from spring training, it’s a lot different from a rehab assignment, we’re trying to win ballgames, as many as possible, but we have to know what we can get from him, and so far it’s been good.”

“We’re going to continue to throw him out there and he’s going to keep getting better,” Cora continued. “That was the goal before we signed him, to be a guy in the back end and he’s done it before. I have no doubt he can do it again.”

Extra innings

The Red Sox announced Monday they have acquired right-handed pitching prospect John Holobetz from the Milwaukee Brewers as the player to be named later in last month’s Quinn Priester trade. Holobetz, 22, was a fifth-round pick out of Old Dominion last summer and has been assigned to High-A Greenville. … After appearing in only one game at the Florida Complex League, 18-year-old prospect Justin Gonzales has been promoted to Low-A Salem. The hulking slugger becomes one of the youngest players with any minor league affiliate after posting an impressive season in the Dominican Republic last summer.