Who Needs to Step Up for Boston Red Sox in Absence of Willson Contreras?
The Red Sox placed their All-Star first baseman on the injured list on Monday with a left hamstring strain.
Video Transcript
What's up, everyone?
Zach Coe here for Roundtable.
Ahead of Monday's series opener against the Seattle Mariners, the Red Sox announced they placed all-star first baseman Wilson Contreras on the injured list with a left hamstring strain.
And it's been clear for the last couple weeks now that Contreras wasn't 100% right, really dating back to getting hit in the head in the first game of that Dodgers series.
He's played 24 games since that happened, and he's hitting 214 with a 333 on-base percentage and a 381 slugging percentage, good for a 714 OPS.
In addition to not being right since getting hit in the head, we've seen him kind of manage this hamstring injury over the course of those weeks.
He's drawn the ire of some fans behind the Red Sox dugout for not hustling out plays.
But it's something that both he and interim manager Chad Tracy have maintained that it's nothing to worry about and just something that they've been trying to manage as the season wears on.
Well, he was removed in the sixth inning of Sunday's blowout loss to the Yankees thanks to that hamstring starting to bark at him, and today he lands on the injured list.
The injury for Contreras really comes at a brutal time for the Red Sox offense because they've struggled over the last week, hitting just 203 with a 615 OPS, going three and four on a seven-game road trip in Miami and New York.
With Contreras out of the lineup, it really puts an increased amount of pressure on guys like Adley Rutschman, Roman Anthony, Seydahn Rafaela, and of course, the recently recalled, recently demoted and then recalled Mickey Gasper to step up in his absence.
Of course, Anthony is just getting back into game action after spending three months on the injured list.
But both Rafaela and Rutschman have struggled at the plate as of late.
And if the Sox are gonna make up for Contreras' absence, they're really gonna need both of those guys to get going at the dish
