On the verge of clinching a postseason berth for the second straight year, the Boston Red Sox have reason to be cautiously optimistic about the health of one of their best hitters.
Though still “pretty sore” from taking a pitch to the right hand on Sept. 17, Willson Contreras no longer believes he suffered a fracture, because he woke up feeling better and had improved range of motion and grip.
“I’m not concerned about having a fracture, just because I can squeeze a lot better today,” the All-Star first baseman told reporters before the team’s Saturday afternoon game at the Tampa Bay Rays’ Tropicana Field. “I had a fracture in my right hand in 2024 by hit-by-pitch, and I couldn’t squeeze at all.”
“But it’s going to take days,” Contreras cautioned.
Contreras’ 24th hit-by-pitch of the season, a 92.3 mph sinker from Rangers’ Jakob Junis to his knuckle in the eighth inning, was a moment of extreme panic for him and the team. Contreras initially went to take his base, but was evidently in severe pain and interim manager Chad Tracy and athletic trainer Dave Herrera quickly removed him from the game.
Though initial imaging was negative, Contreras and Tracy both acknowledged the swelling could be obscurative, with the former telling reporters postgame, “It felt like a fracture.”
“When I got hit, I felt my hand going numb, and I thought it was bad, because that’s a sign of a fracture,” Contreras said on Saturday. “And it was like, tingling for like five minutes.”
Contreras will try to grip a bat on Sunday, and if so, try to do some cage work. He is champing at the bit to get back in games before the postseason begins. He has soared to new heights in his 11th big-league season and first with the Red Sox, putting up career-best marks in his .905 OPS, 59 walks, 81 RBI, and 27 home runs (129 games).
“I’m dying to go out and play with the guys and be there for them,” Contreras said. “It’s part of baseball; I’ll do everything in my power to get back on the field.”
“You don’t want to get to the playoffs without playing any games,” he said. “I want to do everything in my power to get back on the field before the playoffs. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t happen, we’ll see what happens.”
Contreras is one of several injured stars the Red Sox are eager to have back as they careen toward October baseball. Gold Glove centerfielder Ceddanne Rafaela last played Sept. 2 before going on the injured list with a right quad strain. Though it’s unlikely Rafaela will get into a Triple-A Worcester game before their season ends on Sunday, interim manager Chad Tracy described him as “moving quickly in the right direction,” and said the goal is for him to get “live BP-type at-bats of some kind, plus the Trajekt (pitching machine).”
All-Star closer Aroldis Chapman is not on the IL, but remains day-to-day due to the lat tightness he felt during a workout before Tuesday’s game in Texas. Though unavailable for this weekend’s series in Tampa, he told reporters there (through a team translator), “I’m not worried at all. … I feel very good. I was going to go out and throw, but the team wants to take it slow, and they want me to take my time.” Chapman plans to get back in games during the team’s final homestand, which begins Tuesday versus the Cleveland Guardians.