The Red Sox today acquired three-time all-star first baseman (former catcher) Willson Contreras — and $8 million in cash to pay down part of the $41.5 million that remains in the last three years of his contract — from the St. Louis Cardinals (obviously) in exchange for Hunter Dobbins, single-A prospect Yhoiker Fajardo (#8 in the system according to Soxprospects.com), single-A non-prospect Blake Aita (#36), and . Those are the details of the deal. Now to the important part: should you complain about this?
Let’s start with this: Willson Contreras is probably better than you think. Don’t just roll your eyes at the 20-25 run power and dismiss his potential as a middle of the order bat. This man hits the ball about as hard as anyone in baseball and he hits it to left field, which is exactly what the Red Sox lineup needs. His .358 xwOBA last season was the 25th-best mark in all of baseball. The 2025 Red Sox didn’t have one single hitter who finished the top-75 of that metric last year.* No, Contreras has never put up the monster home run totals that either Pete Alonso or Kyle Schwarber do. But he is a feared bat in his own right, and he played an excellent defensive first base last year, too.
(*Of course, that only applies if you don’t consider Rafael Devers a member of the 2025 Red Sox. He finished 16th.)
As for the cost, it’s perfectly acceptable. Hunter Dobbins is a young and relatively polished pitcher who looked good in his mini rookie run this season. I fully expect to watch him pitch in the majors for the next decade and help his teams win. What I don’t expect is to ever see him in the top half of a rotation for a World Series contending team. He has a limited ceiling and was — at best — the eighth arm on the Red Sox starting pitcher depth chart. Pitching depth is great to have, but there is more than one way to use it. One of those ways is to trade it for a middle-of-the-order bat.
But guess what: if you want to complain about the deal, you can! You can complain that Contreras will be 34 next year. He is almost certainly getting worse every day from here on out, and sometimes (most times?) the end comes more suddenly than just about anyone expects. You can complain that he still only replaces one of the currently missing bats that belonged to Devers and Alex Bregman on opening day last year, and that he certainly doesn’t fully replace the former. You can complain that the Red Sox could’ve added a middle-of-the-order of the bat and held on to Dobbins if they’d been willing to open the wallet a bit more. You can complain that the Red Sox now have two players who can only play first base and DH on the roster, along with a third who can only DH, along with four starting-caliber outfielders who all need to play every day. The picture of the roster is now arguably murkier today than it was yesterday. You can complain that the Sox insisted on getting cash in the deal, which likely caused them to give up additional player value than they otherwise would have (losing Yhoiker hurts me more than Dobbins, to be honest). So many things to complain about!
Ultimately, though, the 2026 Red Sox are better right now than they were at this time last night. There will be further trades that clarify the roster (right?). And some of the issues could work themselves out (let’s not forget: the team still doesn’t know whether Triston Casas will be ready for Opening Day next year).
It’s the bleak midwinter, but the stove is hot and the Red Sox have a new bat in the lineup. This is fun?
