FanSided has opened the 2026 Rick Porcello and/or Kevin Kiermaier All-Stars race, and Willy Contreras is already on the board as one of the first names to watch. The list is meant to be revisited before the All-Star Game in July, when the early candidates will be narrowed and a single snub champion will be crowned.
That matters because snubs are not just good players left out. In this framing, they are the ones who would have made the ASG if every MLB team did not have to be represented. Contreras fits that test now because he is playing well enough to belong, yet still looks likely to miss the team when the final cut comes.
He has not been hidden by a bad season. He is 12th in the AL in WAR, plays first base, and is one of the few bats in the Red Sox lineup doing real damage. The list that opened with him is built to catch players like that: performers who look obvious in a vacuum but become vulnerable once the roster rules and positional crowding are layered on top.
The crowded part is what makes Contreras easy to overlook. Ben Rice, Nick Kurtz and Munetaka Murakami are all raking at first base in the American League, and that is before the team-by-team mandate starts shrinking the field. Add Boston’s place in the picture, and the squeeze gets worse. Voters will likely not be in a hurry to venerate the 2026 Boston Red Sox, and Aroldis Chapman is described as pretty much a lock to be their one All-Star representative.
That leaves Contreras in a strange spot. He has been a cheaper, better Alex Bregman replacement in the Red Sox lineup and, by the article’s own measure, is the only thing Boston has even approaching power hitting. Those are All-Star arguments. They just may not be strong enough arguments when the final team is assembled and Boston is expected to send only one player.
The contradiction is the whole story. Contreras should be an All-Star, but probably won’t be, because his numbers are being evaluated inside a system that punishes depth, repeats positions and forces every MLB club onto the board. That is why he shows up so early on the 2026 snub list, and why he is the kind of player this series was built to revisit.
The first edition is only the beginning. The list will change through the next month and change, then be checked again just before July. By then, Contreras may still be one of the strongest examples of how a player can do almost everything right and still wind up on the outside of the All-Star Game.
Mike Trout
