As Boston Red Sox fans hope for an Alex Bregman-sized gift under the Christmas tree, they can take heart in knowing that the one big bat Craig Breslow already delivered them was a hot commodity.

Willson Contreras arrived as a member of the Red Sox officially on Monday in a trade that sent three right-handed pitchers to the St. Louis Cardinals. Contreras is expected to play first base and perhaps some designated hitter in his two years under contract in Boston.

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The Red Sox weren’t the only team who could have used Contreras’ bat in the lineup, and as one insider reported on Thursday, there was at least one other big-market challenger.

Red Sox faced Mets challenge for Contreras?

Jon Heyman of the New York Post reported that the New York Mets were in on Contreras prior to the Red Sox pulling off the trade that was first reported on Sunday.

“The Mets tried for Willson Contreras before he went to the Red Sox,” Heyman wrote. “That was new Cardinals honcho Chaim Bloom’s third trade with Boston, which makes sense since he’s familiar with their system.”

The Mets, of course, lost Pete Alonso to the Baltimore Orioles in free agency, not wanting to pay him for the next five-plus years. Bringing in Contreras as Alonso’s replacement wouldn’t have left Mets fans feeling exceptionally jolly about their offseason, but it would have been a nice pickup regardless.

Was it familiarity that ultimately carried the day for the Red Sox? It’s not as though either team would have had to give up their cream-of-the-crop prospects, as Boston surrendered depth starter Hunter Dobbins and high-upside teenager Yhoiker Fajardo.

The Mets have one of the better farm systems in baseball right now, but they weren’t likely going to give up a Carson Benge or even a Brandon Sproat for Contreras. Without knowing what was on the table, there’s definitely a chance the two offers were about equal and that Bloom’s familiarity with Dobbins, who he drafted in 2021, was something of a tiebreaker.

However it worked out, it’s a nice bonus for Red Sox fans to know that their team came away with the prize in a bidding war. We also don’t know if there were other teams involved, as Contreras would have been an upgrade at first base for roughly two-thirds of the league.

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