Venezuelan Red Sox Players to Attend Fenway Fest Amid Geopolitical Uncertainty

[Maddie Landis]

Baseball has become an international sport. In 2025, internationally born players made up 27.8% of players on Opening Day rosters across Major League Baseball. The Dominican Republic led the way with 100 players, followed by Venezuela with 63 players. You can read more about the situation in Venezuela and its impact on Major League Baseball here.

The Red Sox have four Venezuelan players in the organization: the new kid on the block, first baseman Willson Contreras, catcher Carlos Narváez, right fielder Wilyer Abreu, and shortstop prospect Franklin Arias. Beat writer Marcos Grunfeld reported that the Red Sox are “monitoring the situation” in Venezuela and have confirmed that their players, families, and staff in the country are safe. Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe shared an updated list of players attending Fenway Fest this past Saturday. Of the team’s four Venezuelan players, all except Contreras are set to appear.

 

Contreras’s absence caught my attention, especially given the current geopolitical situation. But on Monday morning, Contreras posted an Instagram Story of Cerro El Casupo, a park in Valencia, Venezuela (which I found after a quick reverse Google Image search), so he appears to be doing well. For reference, Valencia is approximately 103.77 miles away from Caracas, the Venezuelan capital and target of U.S. strikes on January 3.

Safe travels to players (and any family joining them) traveling to Boston this weekend, and to Contreras ahead of spring training.

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