{"id":363609,"date":"2025-12-22T02:03:13","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T02:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/363609\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T02:03:13","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T02:03:13","slug":"sources-red-sox-acquire-willson-contreras-in-trade-with-cardinals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/363609\/","title":{"rendered":"Sources: Red Sox acquire Willson Contreras in trade with Cardinals"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Jeff PassanDec 22, 2025, 12:03 PM<\/p>\n

Close<\/a>ESPN MLB insider
Author of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the Most Valuable Commodity in Sports”<\/p>\n

The Boston Red Sox<\/a> acquired first baseman Willson Contreras<\/a> in a trade with the St. Louis Cardinals<\/a> on Sunday, the second big deal between the teams<\/a> this winter as the Cardinals rebuild and the Red Sox aim to stay competitive in the cutthroat American League East division, sources told ESPN.<\/p>\n

Contreras, 33, has been one of the steadiest right-handed hitters in baseball since his debut and will bring his well-above-average glove to a position Boston had spent the offseason trying to fill. The Red Sox will receive $8 million to cover the remaining $42.5 million on the three-time All-Star’s contract and sent right-hander Hunter Dobbins<\/a> and right-handed pitching prospects Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita to the Cardinals, sources said.<\/p>\n

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While the Cardinals were not intent on trading Contreras this winter, the opportunity to land a major league-ready starter in Dobbins helped facilitate a deal that came after Sonny Gray<\/a> waived his no-trade clause to go from St. Louis to Boston in late November. Contreras likewise waived his no-trade clause and received an extra million dollars on the buyout of his 2028 club option for doing so, sources said.<\/p>\n

Contreras’ deal will pay him $18 million in 2026 and $18.5 million in 2027 with a $17.5 million option in 2028 that now includes a $6 million buyout. Boston had sought a right-handed bat to play first base and fell short in the bidding for free agent first baseman Pete Alonso<\/a>, who signed with division rival Baltimore<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Though Contreras doesn’t possess the power of Alonso, he has been a tremendously steady hitter since debuting at catcher for the Chicago Cubs<\/a> in 2016. Over his 10-year career, Contreras has hit .258\/.352\/.459, and last year, after shifting full-time to first base, he hit .257\/.344\/.447 with 20 home runs and 80 RBIs.<\/p>\n

To get Contreras, the Red Sox dipped into their deep well of starting pitching, sending the 26-year-old Dobbins, who figures to have a spot in St. Louis’ rotation. In his debut season this year, Dobbins went 4-1 with a 4.13 ERA over 13 outings, allowing just six home runs in 61 innings and striking out 45 against 17 walks.<\/p>\n

The 19-year-old Fajardo, who had been traded to the Red Sox a year ago to the day, posted a 2.25 ERA over 72 innings between the Florida Complex League and Low-A Salem this year. A $400,000 signing out of Venezuela, he runs his fastball up to 97 mph and complements it with a changeup and slider.<\/p>\n

Aita, 22, was a sixth-round pick out of Kennesaw State in 2024 and finished this year at High-A. Featuring a mid-90s fastball, Aita struck out 99 and walked 30 in 115.1 innings with a 3.98 ERA over two levels.<\/p>\n

ESPN’s Jesse Rogers contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff PassanDec 22, 2025, 12:03 PM CloseESPN MLB insiderAuthor of “The Arm: Inside the Billion-Dollar Mystery of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":121794,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-363609","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363609","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363609"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363609\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/121794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363609"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363609"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363609"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}