{"id":371097,"date":"2025-12-27T01:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T01:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/371097\/"},"modified":"2025-12-27T01:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T01:04:07","slug":"red-sox-notes-contreras-casas-rafaela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/371097\/","title":{"rendered":"Red Sox Notes: Contreras, Casas, Rafaela"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Red Sox landed<\/a> an impact bat in Willson Contreras<\/a> on Sunday. The longtime catcher made the move to first base last season, and that\u2019s expected to stick in Boston. \u201cWe see him primarily at first base, maybe some DH opportunities. But the more that we can get his bat in the lineup, the better off we\u2019re going to be,\u201d chief baseball officer\u00a0Craig Breslow<\/a> told reporters, including Sean McAdam of MassLive.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Contreras bounced around a bit when he first came up with the Cubs, even logging innings at third base and the corner outfield spots, but spent the majority of his time behind the plate. He served as Chicago\u2019s primary catcher from 2017 through 2021. Conteras split his time fairly equally between catcher and DH in 2022. He went to St. Louis in 2023 and continued to play both catcher and DH somewhat evenly. The Cardinals changed course this past season, slotting Contreras in as their primary first baseman. He also made the occasional start at DH.<\/p>\n

Heading into 2025, Contreras only had 11 career appearances at first base. He made 119 starts at the position this past season. Contreras delivered fine to solid defensive results, depending on the metric. Outs Above Average looked favorably on Contreras, with a +4 grade. Defensive Runs Saved wasn\u2019t as kind at -1. Given Contreras\u2019 significant contributions as a hitter, Boston will likely be fine with close to average defensive numbers. The 33-year-old has posted a wRC+ of at least 124 in four straight seasons.<\/p>\n

Boston has Carlos Narvaez<\/a> and Connor Wong<\/a> penciled in as its two backstops. Narvaez had just six games of big-league experience when he was dealt from the Yankees to the Red Sox last offseason. He emerged as a reliable offensive contributor, hitting 15 home runs and slashing .241\/.306\/.419 across 118 appearances. Wong fell off significantly after a strong 2024. He failed to get on track at the plate after missing most of April with a broken finger. Wong has shown enough in the past to be relied on as a backup heading into next season, and it seems he\u2019ll maintain that role if Boston isn\u2019t interested in playing Contreras at the position.<\/p>\n

The Contreras addition immediately puts Triston Casas<\/a>\u2019 role into question. For his part, Breslow expressed optimism about Casas\u2019 outlook. \u201cWe still have a ton of confidence and belief in Triston. What he needs to do is commit to doing everything possible to get back on the field. He\u2019s doing that right now,\u201d Breslow said, relayed by Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com<\/a>. Casas is currently recovering from a ruptured patellar tendon that cost him most of 2025. His status for the start of next season is uncertain.<\/p>\n

Casas has frequently come up in trade rumors this offseason, even before Boston acquired Contreras. The fact that the team added a player at his position could increase the chances he\u2019s on the move. The main inhibitor toward a potential deal is Casas\u2019 recent performance, both in terms of production and health. He hit just .182 over 29 games before going down with the knee injury. Casas was better in 2024, but also spent three months on the injury list with a rib strain.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Contreras pushing Casas, either. Boston has another DH option in Masataka Yoshida<\/a>, who\u2019s been squeezed out of the outfield mix by Jarren Duran<\/a>, Roman Anthony<\/a>, and Ceddanne Rafaela<\/a>. Wilyer Abreu<\/a> also performed well last year, mostly against right-handed pitching. Breslow didn\u2019t sound overly concerned about the potential roster glut. \u201cThose things tend to work out. (It\u2019s an) opportunity to keep everybody fresh, to keep everybody involved and engaged at the same time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sliding Rafaela to the infield could help alleviate some of the roadblocks for Casas and the young outfielders, but that isn\u2019t the current intention of the club. \u201cWe\u2019re a better team with Ceddanne in center field, and we\u2019ll try to keep (him) there,\u201d Breslow said, per Ari Alexander of 7News Boston WHDH<\/a>. Rafaela earned a Gold Glove in center field this past season.<\/p>\n

After splitting his time between shortstop and center field in 2024, Rafaela was primarily on the grass this past season. He made 19 starts at second base, but the rest of his appearances came in the outfield. Rafaela was one of the most impactful defenders at any position in 2025. He tied for second with Alejandro Kirk<\/a> in Statcast\u2019s Fielding Run Value metric. Patrick Bailey<\/a> was the only player to be more productive as a defender.<\/p>\n

Second base is an area of need for the Red Sox at the moment. If the season started today, Boston would likely be rolling with an uninspiring platoon of Romy Gonzalez<\/a> and Nick Sogard<\/a>\u00a0at the position. Kristian Campbell<\/a> could factor into that mix, though he\u2019ll need to show more in the minors to earn another big-league opportunity.<\/p>\n

Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Red Sox landed an impact bat in Willson Contreras on Sunday. The longtime catcher made the move…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":371098,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[435],"tags":[49,48,3994,462,82,88522,13989],"class_list":{"0":"post-371097","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-ceddanne-rafaela","11":"tag-mlb","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-triston-casas","14":"tag-willson-contreras"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371097","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=371097"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/371097\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/371098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=371097"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=371097"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=371097"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}