Wilyer Abreu Is One of the Most Valuable Players In Baseball

[Sam Stargell]

Wilyer Abreu was quiet this past weekend in St. Louis. But through two and a half weeks, his 2026 campaign has been anything but. 

Entering this offseason, there were a lot of question marks about the Boston Red Sox offensive outlook moving forward. When the front office left a handful of those questions unanswered, baseball experts and fans alike were left wondering where hits and runs would come from. Abreu quickly became a lead candidate of internal options that would have to take a step forward if the team was going to achieve its goals of getting back to the playoffs this coming fall. So far, he's more than answered the call. 

Across MLB, Abreu is 7th in hits, 12th in BA, 13th in SLG, and 16th in OPS. Those marks are all good for first among Red Sox hitters, as his team-leading 178 wRC+. In general, he sits at or near the top in every other offensive statistic for a Red Sox team that desperately needed a hitter to step up and do consistent damage. 

What has led to Abreu’s early success this season?

To start, when he swings, he is making a lot of contact. His zone-contact percentage, which measures his contact percentage when he swings at pitches in the strike zone, has steadily climbed throughout his career but now sits at 88.1%. For pitches out of the zone, he is chasing right around his career average, but this season he is making more contact when he chases at 55.2%, well above his career average. 

Contact is a great start, but it is what he is doing with the contact that really matters. His barrel percentage and hard-hit rate are both at career highs at 14.6% and 50.0%, respectively. While not his absolute best, his max exit velocity this season is 113.1 MPH, which is harder than any ball he hit in 2025. That kind of contact quality is what leads to All-Star nods, Silver Sluggers, and, potentially, MVP votes.

Maybe the biggest question was if Abreu could hit better against lefties as he began a full-time role sans a platoon split. The numbers tell the story. His career slash line split against lefties is .219/.278/.336 with a .286 BABIP. His slash line split against lefties in 2026 is .333/.375/.467 with a 137 wRC+. Obviously, we are only in mid-April, but the early returns are cause for optimism. 

If the rest of the team has you feeling pessimistic, it's fair to point out that his walk rate is at a career low 7.5%, which is more than two points below last year. This should steady as the season goes on, but it is something to keep an eye out for. 

All in all, his contributions on both offense and defense have been worth 1.0 fWAR, which is tied for the fifth-highest mark in baseball. There is no doubt that Abreu has been a catalyst for a Red Sox's offense that's weathering slow starts from nearly everyone else. Abreu will look to carry the momentum forward and if his teammates team follow his lead, they will find themselves playing in October.

View full article

[TedYazPapiMookie]

This article is so off base it's ridiculous.  Abreu started the same way last season and hit .219 after April 30th.  Hardly a performance to suggest a top player in baseball.  HE IS A JOURNEYMAN WHO CAN'T HIT LEFT-HANDED PITCHERS.  

If Cora wasn't the manager, AND HE SHOULDN'T BE, Abreu would be just a bench guy who comes up when right-handed relievers are trying to finish up a game.  He can't hit lefties, he's not clutch, he leads the outfield in errors despite winning bogus gold gloves, he is a bad base runner and because of his tight relationship with Cora he gets opportunities that aren't given to Rafaela who is a FAR, FAR better baseball player.

This article is a massive hyperbole with NO FACTS to justify its existence.   This writer is so clearly a misguided fan who doesn't have a clue about the game.  Why not take ONE GOOD GAME and declare him a HOFER?  It's just as ridiculous as this article.  He's a bad journeyman player who can't hit lefties and can't field above league average yet wins GGs thanks to CORA.  A good manager would have Rafaela the far superior defender guarding right field where the distance from the plate is 302 down the line and 380 in right-center field.  Those dimensions translate using bogus outfield metrics into a massive bump in performance to anyone playing right field.  Verdugo almost won a GG in right field the one year he was in Boston and then the guy with the most errors two years in a row wins the GG both years.  It's a travesty and shows just how bogus the underlying concepts of metrics are.  They are a joke.

Next time, pick a guy who can perform all year not just in two-week spurts.   It's this type of exaggeration that creates myths from players with little skill like Blake Swihart and Jeter Downs.  You want to write about a budding star that has NOT been over hyped because he's a white guy in a Latin community of players, look to Connelly Early.  He blows away Bello on skills but has yet to get close to the amount of love provided by Cora since he showed up in Boston.   

MERITOCRICY is such an important word in good baseball organizations.  It doesn't exist in the Red Sox organization and that's why since Dombrowski left, this team has abjectly failed and will continue to fail until spots are once again earned not handed out based on relationships.  For that to happen, CORA MUST GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!