DataBaseball
2026
Willson Contreras headshot

Players · C · 1B · 2026

Willson Contreras

Age
34
B/T
R/R
Height
6' 0"
Weight
240 lb
Number
#40
Born
May 13, 1992 in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela
MLB debut
June 17, 2016
Salary, 2026
$18M
dbWAR
32.4
11 season(s)
PA
533
AVG
.276
OBP
.387
SLG
.518
wRC+
151
100 = avg

Willson Contreras is a first baseman for the Boston Red Sox. So far in 2026 he has hit 27 home runs and knocked in 81 RBIs, notching 123 hits across 533 plate appearances in 128 games. His batting average is .276, 13.1% higher than the league average of .244. He reached base at a .387 clip and slugged .518, for an OPS of .905, 26.0% higher than the league mark of .719 — the best on his team, and 5th of 462 among MLB batters with 100+ plate appearances. He averaged 89.6 mph off the bat, hit 44.1% of balls in play at 95 mph or better, barrelled 11.2% of them and made contact on 69.4% of his swings. Adjusted for his ballpark and league, his 151 wRC+ puts his offence 51% above average. That comes to 4.3 dbWAR — +33.8 runs with the bat, -0.5 for the ballpark, -1.5 on the bases, -0.9 on double plays, -6.7 for the position he plays, against replacement level. It includes no fielding: defensive runs are proprietary and are not estimated here, so the figure credits playing a demanding position but not playing it well.

League context

Percentile among qualified batters, 2026.

wRC+151
wOBA.395
ISO.242
BB%11.1%
WAR4.3

How the WAR is built

Runs above replacement, 2026. These terms sum to +40.8 runs, divided by runs-per-win to give WAR. There is no fielding term.

Batting+33.8Ballpark-0.5Baserunning-1.5Double plays-0.9Position-6.7Replacement+16.5
BattingBallparkBaserunningDouble playsPositionReplacement

WAR by season

4.32.10.01617181920212223242526

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

Trend
2026BOS1285331232781359134.276.387.518.242.33311.1%25.1%.395+33.81514.3
2025STL1355631262080544142.257.344.447.190.3197.8%25.2%.347+14.71252.4
2024STL8435879153644596.262.380.468.206.33712.6%26.8%.373+18.01443.0
2023STL1234951132067651111.264.358.467.203.31110.3%22.4%.360+16.51243.5
2022CHC1134871012255445103.243.349.466.224.2709.2%21.1%.360+18.91373.8
2021CHC127483982157552138.237.340.438.201.29810.8%28.6%.341+9.61143.1
2020CHC572254672612057.243.356.407.164.3078.9%25.3%.339+3.31161.1
2019CHC100409982464138102.272.355.533.261.3149.3%24.9%.371+17.01363.6
2018CHC1375441181054453121.249.339.390.141.3139.7%22.2%.325+3.11032.6
2017CHC117428104217454598.276.356.499.223.31910.5%22.9%.366+14.71243.0
2016CHC7428371123522667.282.357.488.206.3399.2%23.7%.367+10.21362.1

Platoon splits

How he hits left- and right-handed pitching.

Batting by the hand the pitcher throws with, 2026. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
SplitPAABHHRBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBAK%
vs LHP1441173382427.282.417.564.42318.8%
vs RHP390330901935107.273.375.500.38427.4%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2026.

Loading 315 batted balls…

Contact quality

How hard and at what angle he hits it, over 313 tracked batted balls in 2026. Percentiles are against qualified batters.

Barrel rate
11.2%
35 barrels
Exit velocity
89.6
mph average
Max exit velo
114.9
mph, hardest hit
Hard hit
44.1%
95 mph or better
Sweet spot
35.8%
8–32° launch
Launch angle
18.0°
average
Barrel rate11.2%
Exit velocity89.6 mph
Hard hit rate44.1%
Contact rate69.4%

A barrel is a batted ball whose exit velocity and launch angle have historically produced at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging — 98 mph within 26–30°, widening to 8–50° by 116 mph. Reconstructed from Statcast's published anchor points, which reproduces them exactly; the interior is within a degree. Sweet spot (8–32°) is an exact definition.

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2026.

.091.200.217.165.15020 AB.26123 AB.40632 AB.30636 AB.35334 AB.33342 AB.14321 AB.41039 AB.43639 AB
Below averageLeague averageAbove average
Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .243.

Situational hitting

How Willson Contreras hits by base state, outs, score and late-game pressure — each read against his own season line.

Split by
By who is on base when he comes up. The season line is repeated as the baseline.
SituationPAABHHRRBIBBSOAVGOBPSLGwOBA
All situations533——————.276.387.518.395
Bases empty2852446713132679.275.379.480.381
Runner on first11494227171629.234.368.511.386
Runners on2492035614683355.276.395.562.410
RISP135109347511726.312.418.606.431

Runners on includes runners in scoring position, which is the convention every reference uses. Counted from play-by-play, 2026.

Head to head

Put Willson Contreras beside up to three others.

Compare — add up to 3 more players
Willson Contreras

Similar players

Nearest 2026 seasons by discipline, contact, power and speed, on rate statistics rather than totals.

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.