Willson Contreras has perfected the art of creating conflict where none needs to exist. Infamous for turning every slightly inside pitch into reason to threaten the opposing pitcher with bodily harm, Contreras has now taken to establishing an antagonistic position with his own team's fans. His reaction to boos from the Fenway Park crowd on Wednesday -- appearing to cup his hand to his ear to invite the catcalls -- was a poor look for a player who, in less than a season with the Boston Red Sox, has become the emotional leader of the team.
His words after the fact didn't help matters at all. "If you're a smart fan, you know what's going on," Contreras told MassLive's Chris Cotillo, per a post on X. "I'm not gonna get hurt running on a ground ball.
If you're a real fan and you know baseball, there's no case for me to hustle out of the box." Unfortunately for Contreras, two things can be true. One, he's very clearly dealing with a lot. He recently had to leave one game with an unspecific illness and missed another game under the MLB's concussion protocol.
He's dealing with the fallout of the earthquakes in his native Venezuela that have claimed more than 6,000 lives. It's August, and to his immense credit, he's a stalwart in a Red Sox lineup that desperately needs his defense and right-handed bat. Booing seems more than a bit unfair considering what the All-Star has meant to Boston this season.
Red Sox color analyst Lou Merloni alluded to that in his commentary on social media. "I'll just say this, if people really knew what Willson Contreras has dealt with throughout the (year), all the (expletive) he plays through, they'd be embarrassed for being upset at him for not running out a routine ground ball once in (a while)," Merloni posted on X. Two, however, there's a broad line between reasonable accountability and open defiance.
The ability to turn the smallest slight into motivational fuel is a superpower Contreras shares with legends such as Pedro Martinez and Roger Clemens, but it has its limits. Look no farther than the exasperated expression on Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Gabriel Moreno in the photo that accompanies this article (from a game the Red Sox won 11-1, no less); Contreras' act quickly goes stale. This is already a Red Sox squad battling the specter of unlikability.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
