Boston Red Sox
“It’s not enough when you have talent, or you have data, or you have computers telling you what to do, because this is baseball.”
Willson Contreras has never been one to hold back when speaking to the media, especially during his first year with the Red Sox.
As such, the veteran first baseman was candid when asked to summarize Boston’s brief two-game playoff series against the Yankees in the Wild Card round.
“We didn’t play good at all,” Contreras said. “We didn’t pitch. We didn’t hit. And when you don’t have those two, it’s tough to win. They played better than us. And that’s why they advanced.”
Boston was ultimately outscored, 18-2, and outhit, 26-7, in a lopsided playoff series against New York — with the Red Sox bats going cold for the second straight postseason.
Before Contreras clubbed a solo shot in the top of the sixth inning, the Red Sox had gone 26.2 innings without scoring a run in the playoffs — dating back to last year’s postseason series against New York.
Despite a 32-5 surge in July and August that revived Boston’s season, the Red Sox’ bats went quiet down the stretch — even before this two-game series. In September, Boston posted just a .219 batting average, including just a .163 batting average with runners in scoring position.
Speaking after Boston’s 9-2 season-ending loss on Wednesday, Contreras was evasive when asked what led to the Red Sox’ disheartening downturn after such a dominant stretch in July and August.
“That’s a good question,” Contreras said. “I’m not going to answer it because I don’t want to give my honest answer. But we got eliminated. That’s the bottom line. We didn’t produce. We didn’t execute any part of the game, and that’s why we [lost].
“I know that we had a really good stretch. I’m really proud of what we did in the past, like I said. We were able to turn the season around, for sure, 100 percent. But that’s not enough. It’s not enough. And at the end of the day, you win games in the regular season to clinch the playoff, but then falling short in the playoffs, it’s tough.”
While Boston’s dormant offense loomed large over this series, Contreras also seemed to take umbrage with Chad Tracy’s decision to pull Sonny Gray after just one earned run allowed and 70 total pitches on Wednesday.
After Gray was lifted after 4.2 innings of work, reliever Erik Miller immediately gave up an RBI single — giving New York a 2-0 lead at the time.
When asked about Gray’s quick hook, Contreras didn’t comment — instead signaling a “lips sealed” motion with his hands and mouth twice.
Whether it was inspired by the decision to remove Gray or other instances in which the Red Sox have leaned heavily on analytics or other tools in their baseball operations, Contreras stressed that teams can’t rely on those metrics to translate directly into results — especially in October.
“It’s not enough when you have talent, or you have data, or you have computers telling you what to do, because this is baseball,” Contreras said. “The data is here to help us, but at the end of the day, you need experience and veteran guys to win games. There’s a lot of stuff I would like to say, but I’ll state it like that.”
When asked if he feels there’s too much of a reliance on data and analytics in baseball today, Contreras replied: “If you watch the game. If you watch the game.”
Contreras — who set career highs in home runs (27) and RBI (81) in his first year with Boston — said that he’d be open to having conversations with chief baseball officer Craig Breslow about the team’s approach to data and analytics.
“At the end of the day, we can talk, we can share ideas, but like I said, I’m not making decisions,” Contreras said, per MassLive’s Christopher Smith. “And we’re not going to make decisions. We are employees. We get paid to play baseball and we get paid to be out there on the field to perform. I mean, that’s the bottom line. Of course, we can have some conversations.”
The Red Sox have plenty of work to do this offseason, whether that means bolstering their lineup and adding some pop to their batting order, clearing a logjam of underachieving players across the roster, or ideally getting several key cogs like Roman Anthony and Garrett Crochet healthy.
Contreras, who suffered his fair share of bumps and bruises in 2026, said plenty needs to change if Boston wants to advance past the Wild Card round in 2027.
“At the end of the day, it’s not about data. It’s about executing the game plan,” he noted.
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