Willson Contreras is the Best Red Sox First Baseman Since…?
Triston Casas, Bobby Dalbec, Steve Pearce?
Willson Contreras is the lone bright spot in the Red Sox offense in 2026. He is currently the only player on the team with an OPS over .800 (.934). That OPS is good enough for sixth in qualified hitters in MLB. His .394 OBP is 12th and his .540 SLG is 13th. He is having a fantastic year. Surprisingly he only has 8 doubles, but we won’t nitpick. His 13 home runs lead the team, and Jarren Duran is the only other player in double digits.
Red Sox Nation hasn’t really had a star first baseman in a while. Willson has only played 60 games for the Sox, so it might be a bit early for a comparison, but I am going to assume the rest of the season goes about the same for him. So, who have been the best Red Sox first basemen in recent years?
There was the fascination with Bobby Dalbec and Triston Casas in the 2020s. They were going to be the next great first base sluggers, but injury and poor play took them both out of the equation. Mitch Moreland and Steve Pearce had a couple of nice years for the Sox, including 2018 when they platooned the team to a championship, and Pearce was the World Series MVP.
In the earlier part of the decade, Mike Napoli, Adrian Gonzalez, and Kevin Youkilis manned the 1B bag, and all three were good players. Napoli and Youk won titles, but my biggest disappointment was in Gonzalez. He had some great seasons with the Rangers and Padres and Theo brought him over prior to that fateful 2011 season. They had just let Adrian Beltre go, and Youk moved back to 3B. Adrian had a great season, hitting 27 home runs with a .957 OPS. We know how that season ended, and in 2012 he was shipped off to the Dodgers after clashing with that disaster of a manager, Bobby Valentine. I still believe that he could have been a very good player with the Red Sox. He had that inside out swing from the left side that all great Fenway hitters have, and his numbers are good enough to put him in the running.
In the late 90s and early 2000s, Kevin Millar and Brian Daubach were solid 1Bs, but none of these aforementioned players were any match for the man that had the 1B bag for most of the 1990s. First a look at the numbers. These are hitting stats in games played at 1B only with a minimum of 200 games played at that position.
You see some old familiar names here. Obviously, Jimmie Foxx is the greatest Red Sox 1B ever, but unless you are 84+ years old you never saw him play. After Carl Yastrzemski’s superstar years in LF, he shifted to 1B full time in the 70s and still had a great career there. Adrian, Youk, Daubach, Millar, and Moreland are honorable mentions, but the winner is…
Mo Vaughn. Mo won the MVP in 1995 and received MVP votes in 5 additional seasons. He was a wrecking machine from 1993 to 1998, surpassing the 40-home run mark twice. Unfortunately, Mo was a bit of a bad boy, with DUIs and arrests for altercations. GM Dan Duquette also had to prioritize signing Pedro Martinez to an extension in that 1998-99 offseason. Duquette was critical of Vaughn’s attitude, weight, and general demeanor, so the Angels swooped in and signed him to a 6 year, $80M contract, $20M more than the Red Sox were offering.
It’s a shame that Vaughn left the Red Sox, but his first couple of years in LA were not up to his previous standards. He was one of the great hitters at Fenway Park, and I’m sure that affected his numbers at neutral Angel Stadium.
So, my position is that Willson Contreras is the best Red Sox first baseman since Mo Vaughn. His combination of plate patience, power, and good defense has made him a fan favorite. Will he play an entire season for the Red Sox? If they sell, Contreras will be a hot commodity. If he stays, he is under contract through 2027 with a 2028 club option. 2027 will be a wildcard year and possibly a lost season, but Willson Contreras could be a key piece for the next CBO to build a championship roster.