This story originally appeared in the Globe’s Sunday Baseball Notes. Read the rest here.
While the 2025 statistical profile for Willson Contreras — a .257/.344/.447 slash line with 20 homers — doesn’t jump off the page, it’s not hard to wonder why the Red Sox were drawn to him as a middle-of-the-order contributor.
“The batted-ball profile is going to be much more favorable for him in our park,” said Sox hitting coach Pete Fatse.
In three years with the Cardinals, Contreras hit .253/.355/.424 with 21 homers at Busch Stadium. On the road, he hit .268/.361/.491 with 34 homers. He put up better numbers on the road than at home in all three seasons.
Further, recent adjustments he’s made offer promise for his fit in Boston. In 2025, Contreras started pulling the ball in the air with more frequency than at any other point in his career — a skill that produces fireworks at Fenway Park.
Another righthanded hitter who went from the Cardinals to the Sox gives some indication of how a change of venue can result in a change of fortunes. Tyler O’Neill has averaged one extra-base hit for every 11.5 plate appearances in his career at Busch Stadium and one homer for every 20.2 plate appearances. At Fenway, he’s averaged one extra-base hit for every 8.6, while homering once every 14.2.
Other Red Sox notes:
▪ Rob Refsnyder, who signed a one-year, $6.25 million deal with the Mariners last week, had a remarkable mid-career emergence with the Red Sox. Signed to a minor league deal with no fanfare in December 2021, the outfielder emerged as one of the most consistent Sox hitters over four seasons, hitting .276/.364/.440, including a .312/.407/.516 mark against lefties.
Yet his clubhouse impact expanded far beyond that of a traditional role player. He was part of the “Baby Bombers” Yankees youth movement (Aaron Judge, Gary Sánchez, Gleyber Torres, and others) a decade ago, then a journeyman who’d assimilated plenty of player development lessons while shuttling between Triple A and the big leagues with six organizations between his time with the Yankees and Sox.
Those experiences allowed Refsnyder — who made no secret of his enjoyment of and gratitude for the Boston baseball experience — to carry clubhouse influence that far outstripped a typical role player.
▪ With Contreras in the fold, the Sox continue to pursue another infield bat. According to major league sources, the team’s primary targets remain fairly consistent: Free agent infielders Alex Bregman and Bo Bichette, as well as trade candidates Ketel Marte (Diamondbacks) and Isaac Paredes (Astros), and Brandon Donovan (Cardinals). Aside from Marte, who is a switch-hitter, all are righthanded. There are additional alternatives on both the trade and free agent markets, but to date, that group of five occupies the front-burner pursuits.
▪ Breslow expressed openness to giving both outfielder Wilyer Abreu and infielder Marcelo Mayer a chance to prove they can be true everyday players, rather than platoon options who sit against lefties. If so, the Sox may become part of a trend.
There are signs that MLB as a whole is becoming less platoon-centric than in recent years. In 2023, just 46 lefthanded hitters got 100 plate appearances against southpaw pitchers. In 2024, that number went up to 55, before reaching 61 in 2025 — the highest since 2019.
▪ Ex-Sox prospect Bobby Dalbec signed with the Yomiuri Giants for the 2026 season, while Michael Chavis — who finished last year in NPB — signed a minor league deal with the Reds. Their inability to secure places in MLB underscores how thin the Red Sox system became behind the championship core of 2018.
Entering 2019, Dalbec and Chavis were ranked the top two prospects in the system. Of the team’s top 10 prospects entering that season, only two — Triston Casas and Tanner Houck — have forged more than 1.0 WAR of career value (in the calculations of FanGraphs).
▪ Baseball America’s annual Prospect Handbook has the Red Sox system ranked as the 14th best. The publication pegged Sox lefthander Payton Tolle as the second-best lefthanded pitching prospect in baseball, behind only the Marlins’ Thomas White, the Phillips Andover alum. The 21-year-old who reached Triple A last year led minor league lefty starters with a 39 percent strikeout rate. Tolle (37 percent) ranked second.
▪ Lefthander Jovani Morán, a 28-year-old on the Red Sox’ 40-man roster who is out of options, has impressed while pitching winter ball in Puerto Rico. More than two years removed from Tommy John surgery, he’s showing an uptick in velocity compared to the 2025 season, working at 93-95 m.p.h. with his four-seamer. His changeup, which produced whiff rates above 50 percent in both Triple A and the big leagues, has continued to get swings and misses. Through 10 winter appearances, he’d allowed one run in nine innings while striking out 12.
“The stuff is there,” said Sox bench coach Ramón Vázquez, who is managing Morán in Puerto Rico. “He can be a guy that can help us [in the big leagues], definitely.”
Alex Speier can be reached at alex.speier@globe.com. Follow him @alexspeier.