BOSTON, MA—Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras and right-handed pitcher Sonny Gray have been named to the 2026 All-MLB Second Team. Selections were determined by a combination of fan voting and voting from a panel of media members, broadcasters, former players, and other officials.
Contreras is the first Red Sox first baseman and the third Red Sox infielder to earn All-MLB honors. Gray, who was also named to the All-MLB Second Team in 2023 with the Minnesota Twins, is the third Red Sox pitcher to earn All-MLB honors.
They are the seventh and eighth Red Sox players to earn All-MLB Team honors since the award’s inception in 2019, joining Xander Bogaerts (2019 First Team), Mookie Betts (2019 Second Team), Rafael Devers (2021 Second Team), Jarren Duran (2024 Second Team), Garrett Crochet (2025 First Team) and Aroldis Chapman (2025 First Team).
Contreras, 34, set career highs in home runs (27), RBI (81), walks (59), on-base percentage (.386) and OPS (.902) across 130 games in his first season with Boston, while batting .275 (123-for-448) with a .516 slugging percentage. The right-handed hitter was selected to his fourth career All-Star Game and participated in his first career Home Run Derby.
Among qualified hitters in the American League, Contreras ranked second in on-base percentage and OPS, fifth in slugging percentage, and tied for 11th in home runs. He also ranked second among MLB first basemen in fWAR (4.0). He was hit-by-pitch a career-high-tying 24 times (also 2022), fourth-most in the Majors and tied for second most in a season in Red Sox history, trailing only Don Baylor’s 35 in 1986.
Contreras earned AL Player of the Week honors for the week of May 18 after batting .458 (11-for-24) with two home runs, eight RBI, two triples, a walk, five runs scored, an .875 slugging percentage and a .480 on-base percentage across six games. The Venezuela native recorded his 1,000th career hit on May 22 and reached 10 years of MLB service time on May 27.
Gray, 37, went 18-5 with a 2.72 ERA (51 ER/169.0 IP) and 149 strikeouts in 29 starts in his first season with the Red Sox. The right-hander led qualified Major League pitchers in win percentage (.783) and tied for the lead in wins with Cristopher Sánchez. He also ranked fifth in the American League and eighth in the Majors in ERA, posting the lowest mark in any of his 12 seasons with at least 100.0 innings pitched.
Gray became the first pitcher in the Majors to win 18 or more games at the age of 36 or older since Justin Verlander in 2022 and joined Cy Young and Curt Schilling as the only players to do so in Red Sox history. He also became seventh pitcher in club history and the first since Schilling in 2004 to win as many as 18 of their first 29 games with the Red Sox. From May 6 to July 19, he recorded a career-high streak of 10 consecutive winning decisions and became the first Red Sox starter to record such a streak in a single season since Clay Buchholz earned 11 straight in 2013.
The Tennessee native allowed three or fewer earned runs in 25 of his 29 starts and one or zero earned runs in a career-high-tying 16 starts (also 2023). He recorded his 2,000th career strikeout and reached 2,000.0 IP, both on June 28 against the New York Yankees. Gray became a free agent on October 29.