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New Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras meets with the media at spring training, Feb. 14, 2026. (Boston Herald\/Gabrielle Starr)<\/p>\nFORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 Willson Contreras already had a Red Sox duffle bag when he arrived at spring training this week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t show up with (another team\u2019s),\u201d Contreras said with a smile.<\/p>\n
Players typically receive team gear when they report. It\u2019s not uncommon to walk into a clubhouse around the MLB trade deadline and see another team\u2019s logos and colors on the belongings of a new arrival. Some players simply don\u2019t feel the need to get rid of a quality piece of luggage, like Christian Arroyo, who reported to Mets camp in Port St. Lucie on Saturday with an old Red Sox bag slung over one shoulder.<\/p>\n
The Red Sox acquired Contreras, 33, from the St. Louis Cardinals in late December. He has two seasons left on a five-year, $87.5 million contract that includes a team option for 2028.<\/p>\n
Contreras asked Red Sox clubhouse attendants to have the gear sent to him ahead of camp. The three-time All-Star and 2016 World Series champion, who waived his no-trade clause for Boston, didn\u2019t want to wait for this new chapter to start in even the smallest ways.<\/p>\n
New Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras meets with the media at spring training, Feb. 14, 2026. (Boston Herald\/Gabrielle Starr)<\/p>\n
This new chapter will include a brief pause, however, so Contreras can check two special goals off his bucket list.<\/p>\n
The veteran catcher-turned-first baseman will represent his native Venezuela in next month\u2019s World Baseball Classic (though he\u2019s still waiting for insurance approval). And he\u2019ll do so alongside younger brother, William.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be one of the best experiences that I have in my life,\u201d Contreras said Saturday, during his first spring training media session. \u201cPlaying for Venezuela, with my brother, is one thing that we were looking (forward) to.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both will be firsts for Contreras. The 2017 WBC was months after his rookie season ended with the first Chicago Cubs World Series championship in 108 years. He abstained again in 2023 because he had just signed a five-year contract with the St. Louis Cardinals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to stay there to know the pitching staff, and basically half of them left (to play in the WBC),\u201d the former catcher explained. \u201cBut this year I said yes from Day 1, and this one nobody\u2019s taking away from me.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Contreras brothers never played on the same teams growing up, Willson said, because William is five years younger. They spent the last three seasons as National League Central rivals, with the exception of their selections to the 2022 All-Star Game.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a dream come true for us,\u201d Contreras said of the midsummer classic. \u201cWe came from Puerto Cavallo, Venezuela. We were two kids dreaming of getting to the big leagues, and then we got to the big leagues. Then dreaming of going to (the) All-Star Game, and we made it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Representing Venezuela with William \u201cmeans a lot for me and my family,\u201d Contreras said.<\/p>\n
Venezuela is Contreras\u2019 first home. The Red Sox already feel like a second one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat caught my attention was the chemistry that we already have in here,\u201d Contreras said. \u201cEven me, they made me feel like I\u2019ve been here for years. And I have like, three days in here. \u2026 (They) treat me like (a) brother. Like, \u2018We already know you, who you are.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd that\u2019s where everything starts,\u201d the veteran explained. \u201cYou start in the clubhouse, you win the clubhouse, then you translate that from the clubhouse to the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contreras is a lifetime .258 average, .811 OPS hitter. Last season he made the transition from catcher to first base look easy. Certainly easier than it felt, he said. He ranked in the 91st MLB percentile in Outs Above Average and 77th percentile in Fielding Run Value.<\/p>\n
It helped that the Cardinals had a legend in residence at spring training: the wonderful \u201cWizard of Oz.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOzzie Smith, he showed up a couple times during my workouts and explained some of the angles, some of the stuff, and I asked him a lot of questions and that helped a lot,\u201d Contreras said of the famed shortstop, whose Hall of Fame career included 13 consecutive Gold Glove seasons from 1980-92.<\/p>\n
Smith was \u201camazing,\u201d Contreras raved. \u201cAnd you need to listen. If you don\u2019t listen to that guy, you\u2019re playing the wrong sport.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wizard\u2019s advice?<\/p>\n
\u201cStay on your feet,\u201d Contreras said. \u201cDon\u2019t stay flat-footed, stay ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
Contreras last caught a major league game in 2024, and isn\u2019t expected to don his catcher\u2019s gear this season. Wowed by Boston\u2019s deep, elite pitching staff, which projects to be among the best in the game, Contreras isn\u2019t so much jealous that he doesn\u2019t get to catch them as he is grateful he doesn\u2019t have to bat against them.<\/p>\n
But if the Red Sox need him behind the dish, all they have to do is ask.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy whole goal here is just help the team in any way I can,\u201d Contreras said. \u201cTeam player. No ego. Try to win. Do my best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FORT MYERS, Fla. \u2014 Willson Contreras already had a Red Sox duffle bag when he arrived at spring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[5,141,48,2542,4,19313,89,2543,151,8814,32205,3801,409,4820],"class_list":{"0":"post-573100","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-boston","10":"tag-boston-red-sox","11":"tag-bostonredsox","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-ozzie-smith","14":"tag-red-sox","15":"tag-redsox","16":"tag-spring-training","17":"tag-venezuela","18":"tag-wbc","19":"tag-william-contreras","20":"tag-willson-contreras","21":"tag-world-baseball-classic"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116071835430028363","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=573100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/573100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/573101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=573100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=573100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=573100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}