Red Sox Showing Interest In Cardinals' Willson Contreras As Trade Target

[Brock Beauchamp]

The MLB Winter Meetings have concluded, and the Red Sox appear serious about adding offense in 2026. According to Chris Cotillo of MassLive, the Cardinals' Willson Contreras has become their most recent trade target.

Contreras turns 34 early in the 2026 season. He signed a five-year deal with St. Louis that runs through 2027, so he remains under contract for 2026 and 2027. 

At the plate in 2024, Contreras logged 663 plate appearances and hit .262/.380/.468 with a .365 wOBA and 141 wRC+. He walked in 12.6% of his plate appearances, struck out 26.8% of the time, and finished at 2.7 fWAR. In 2025, he had 622 plate appearances and hit .257/.344/.447 with a .358 wOBA and 124 wRC+. His BB% was 7.8% with a 25.2% K%, and he produced 2.8 fWAR. 

Defensively, he caught 431 2/3 innings in 2024. In 2025 at first base, he logged 1011 2/3 innings with -1 Defensive Runs Saved. While he could still technically catch, he's not a volume receiver at this point in his career, and it's possible the Red Sox will not consider him a catcher at all.

View full rumor

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

Package Donovan with Contreras and make a trade that gives Bloom an outfielder and a few of the 25 SEC pitchers Breslow drafted.

Then sign Bregman, and let's go.

Don't worry about Mayer; if he's healthy he'll get plenty of playing time when Bregman and/or Story break down and/or rest one day a week at DH vs. a lefty who's tough on Yoshida.

[mvp 78]

44 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Package Donovan with Contreras and make a trade that gives Bloom an outfielder and a few of the 25 SEC pitchers Breslow drafted.

Then sign Bregman, and let's go.

Don't worry about Mayer; if he's healthy he'll get plenty of playing time when Bregman and/or Story break down and/or rest one day a week at DH vs. a lefty who's tough on Yoshida.

Contreras, Donovan AND Breggie? That's asking a bit much! 

[harmony]

25 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Contreras, Donovan AND Breggie? That's asking a bit much! 

What would be the luxury tax consequences?

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/tax

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

31 minutes ago, mvp 78 said:

Contreras, Donovan AND Breggie? That's asking a bit much! 

Depends on how much Bloom is subsidizing on Willi. 

And technically, Brez can sign still Bregman and brag to his dumbass owners that he only signed one free agent.

Plus: for all we know, Bloom may want his boy Mayer in trade instead of Duran.

[notin]

18 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Depends on how much Bloom is subsidizing on Willi. 

And technically, Brez can sign still Bregman and brag to his dumbass owners that he only signed one free agent.

Plus: for all we know, Bloom may want his boy Mayer in trade instead of Duran.

Part of the reason the Sox look at players like Contreras and his $41.5 mill over the next 2 years is they believe that he can be acquired without giving up Mayer.  Like Mayer or not, his chance of being a starter on the 2026 Red Sox are probably 95% or higher as of today.  And Donovan doesn’t make giving up Mayer worth it…

[5GoldGlovesOF,75]

3 minutes ago, notin said:

Part of the reason the Sox look at players like Contreras and his $41.5 mill over the next 2 years is they believe that he can be acquired without giving up Mayer.  Like Mayer or not, his chance of being a starter on the 2026 Red Sox are probably 95% or higher as of today.  And Donovan doesn’t make giving up Mayer worth it…

We just don't know with Mayer. Maybe he's a rare talent, but a guy who will miss parts of every single season with bumps and bruises like Byron Buxton. 

The Twins even tried to just DH Buxton one year so he wouldn't get mangled on defense, and he still only ended up playing that half of that season after all.

With most top prospects, you want them playing every day to properly develop... but maybe Mayer is safer never seeing the minors again, and just platooning with himself in The Show.

[mvp 78]

38 minutes ago, harmony said:

What would be the luxury tax consequences?

https://www.spotrac.com/mlb/boston-red-sox/tax

Contreras 18M (CBT hit resets at trade), Donovan 5.5M (ARB projection), Breggie 30M???

Puts them over the 2nd threshold per https://soxprospects.com/payroll.htm

Would need to trade full value of Sandoval (doable) and half of Hicks (maybe) to get under. Would have no money to sign anyone to be under 264M. 

[mvp 78]

38 minutes ago, 5GoldGlovesOF,75 said:

Plus: for all we know, Bloom may want his boy Mayer in trade instead of Duran.

[Behindenemylines]

Contreras much like Gray, his number look better then you thought. Still with one of the Sox goals to improve the D, his defense will go a long way for that to happen.

[mvp 78]

12 hours ago, Behindenemylines said:

Contreras much like Gray, his number look better then you thought. Still with one of the Sox goals to improve the D, his defense will go a long way for that to happen.

1b has been generally undervalued. I agree that Contreras will go a long way to help the IF. 

[moonslav59]

I think Contreras will be a big help. I also think he might catch more than some expect. The words was STL was preparing to play him more at catcher in 2026. They were loaded at catcher in '25. 

Even if he just plays a little late inning stints at catcher, it's nice to have a PH option and the flexibility to move guys around. Cora loves that!

I seriously doubt we go over the second tax line, so adding a huge contract means we have to unload some. Of course Hicks and Masa come to mind, but that is likely just a dream and might save just $3-6M each on trades for nothing.

More likely we'd trade Duran ($7.75M) for something much less costly. Is signing Bregman and trading Duran for prospects improving the offense? Duran for Lodolo only saves about $2-3M. Not enough.

Other adjusted AAVs: (WHAT THE OTHER TEAM TAKES ON, not what we SAVE.)

$27.5M Story (We'd have another IF hole to fill)

$13M Bello (Maybe this is why we keep hearing his name in trade talks.)

$9.1 Sandoval (Not sure many teams want to pay that much for an injury question. Too bad there isn't another Brez in MLB.)

$8.4M Campbell

$8m Rafaela (Move Anthony or Duran to CF?)

$7.8M Duran

$4M Houck (Only Brez would trade for a guy like Houck.)

$2.8 Crawford (Not much relief.)

The AAV we'd save by trading away for nothing added:

$23.3 Story

$18.0 Masa

$10.3 Hicks

$9.2 Bello

$9.1 Sandoval

$7.8 Duran

$7.5 Campbell

$6.3 Rafaela

$4.0 Houck

$2.8 Crawford

It really sucks thinking of ways to save JH tax payments.