{"id":679088,"date":"2026-04-19T12:21:53","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:21:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/679088\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T12:21:53","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T12:21:53","slug":"putting-the-2026-red-sox-into-the-mario-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/679088\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting the 2026 Red Sox into the Mario Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Sunday after the Red Sox\u2019s 9\u20133 win over the Cardinals, Trevor Story<\/a> gave one of the more entertaining quotes about his new teammate Willson Contreras:<\/p>\n

\u201cJust look at him. They\u2019re very similar in stature. Real strong and he\u2019s got that presence about him, that Bowser presence. He\u2019s got the intensity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve never seen a more spot-on comparison.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a full scouting report if I\u2019ve ever heard one.<\/p>\n

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Contreras did have a four-hit, three RBI day which is frankly villainous if you\u2019re a Cardinal but fantastic if you\u2019re a Red Sox. Combine that with Willy\u2019s build in general and boom. Match made.<\/p>\n

View Link<\/a><\/p>\n

The nickname itself didn\u2019t start in Boston\u2014Contreras said it was coined by former teammate Pedro Pag\u00e9s<\/a> during his time in St. Louis<\/a>, but since arriving with the Red Sox this spring, it\u2019s taken on a life of its own. Teammates have embraced it, T-shirts have been made, and Contreras and the squad are very clearly having fun with it it.<\/p>\n

And once Bowser exists in the clubhouse, it raises a much more important question:<\/p>\n

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Who else is in this Red Sox\/Mario universe?<\/p>\n

Infield<\/p>\n

Willson Contreras\u2014Bowser
This is a given considering it came with him but we have to include it to set the baseline.<\/p>\n

Trevor Story\u2014Luigi
Not always the star of the show, but when he\u2019s hot, he can drive this team far.<\/p>\n

Marcelo Mayer<\/a>\u2014Baby Luigi
Still coming along, waiting in Story\u2019s shadow, but has the potential for greatness.<\/p>\n

Caleb Durbin\u2014Diddy Kong
Small, fast, relentlessly annoying when he goes 25 at-bats without a hit. Still a baby in his MLB career.<\/p>\n

View Link<\/a><\/p>\n

Carlos Narv\u00e1ez<\/a>\u2014Kamek
Behind the scenes, pulling strings, like a catcher should. Not sure if this is too generic for a catcher but I\u2019m fine with this for Narvy.<\/p>\n

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Outfield<\/p>\n

Jarren Duran<\/a>\u2014Waluigi
Lanky chaos, meet Angry Lizard. Can ruin your day when something stupid happens but I main him in Mario Party and he\u2019s very effective.<\/p>\n

Ceddanne Rafaela<\/a>\u2014Toadette
Small, fast, everywhere at once. Apparently Toadette can transform into Peachette in one of the games, is this Rafaela going from outfield to infield?<\/p>\n

View Link<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilyer Abreu<\/a>\u2014Donkey Kong
Happy and powerful. Nuff said for Wilyer.<\/p>\n

Roman Anthony<\/a>\u2014Baby Mario
This makes more sense when you see below, but if there\u2019s a developing face of the franchise on this squad, it\u2019s Roman.<\/p>\n

Starters<\/p>\n

Garrett Crochet<\/a>\u2014Mario
The clear star and face of the team. Leader of men. Rescuing this team (for the most part) when they want to act like a damsel in distress.<\/p>\n

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Ranger Su\u00e1rez<\/a>\u2014Rosalina
Calm, smooth, everything looks easy. Just look at his eight frames of cool baseball last night. Only playable more recently in the Mario Universe and only a very recent addition to the Red Sox.<\/p>\n

View Link<\/a><\/p>\n

Brayan Bello<\/a>\u2014Boo
You think you\u2019ve got him\u2014then you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Payton Tolle<\/a>\u2014Wario
I cant\u2019t stop thinking that Birdo fires eggs and that Tolle fires fastballs. They\u2019re also both odd and funny as hell.<\/p>\n

Bullpen<\/p>\n

Garrett Whitlock<\/a>\u2014Dry Bones
This almost makes too much sense. Dry Bones falls apart\u2014aka Whit being on the IL so much, missing as many games as he has\u2014but is that good when he puts himself back together.<\/p>\n

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Aroldis Chapman<\/a>\u2014Bullet Bill
Sure, Bullet Bill isn\u2019t a \u201ccharacter\u201d but is known enough in the Mario universe that I allow this. He shows up, fires bullets, then leaves.<\/p>\n

View Link<\/a><\/p>\n

Bench<\/p>\n

Masataka Yoshida<\/a>\u2014Shy Guy
\u2026don\u2019t ask. It just works.<\/p>\n

Connor Wong<\/a>\u2014Koopa Troopa
Until Wong shows me he\u2019s not just a 0.3 WAR replacement level player, this is his role. Just a cog in the machine of this world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last Sunday after the Red Sox\u2019s 9\u20133 win over the Cardinals, Trevor Story gave one of the more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2375],"tags":[1113,5,141,48,2542,5172,3615,789,1396,790,922,4506,604,1248,792,59,4,3973,1554,90,89,2543,793,673,1035,409,606],"class_list":{"0":"post-679088","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-boston-red-sox","8":"tag-aroldis-chapman","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-boston","11":"tag-boston-red-sox","12":"tag-bostonredsox","13":"tag-brayan-bello","14":"tag-caleb-durbin","15":"tag-carlos-narvaez","16":"tag-ceddanne-rafaela","17":"tag-connor-wong","18":"tag-garrett-crochet","19":"tag-garrett-whitlock","20":"tag-jarren-duran","21":"tag-marcelo-mayer","22":"tag-masataka-yoshida","23":"tag-milwaukee-brewers","24":"tag-mlb","25":"tag-payton-tolle","26":"tag-pedro-pages","27":"tag-ranger-suarez","28":"tag-red-sox","29":"tag-redsox","30":"tag-roman-anthony","31":"tag-st-louis","32":"tag-trevor-story","33":"tag-willson-contreras","34":"tag-wilyer-abreu"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116431352228514887","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679088","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=679088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}