Wilyer Abreu has spent most of 2026 doing something he says he does not pay much attention to: Putting up numbers.
The Boston Red Sox outfielder, in the midst of a breakout Major League Baseball season less than a year removed from leading his native Venezuela to a World Baseball Classic title here in Miami, hit the month of September with career highs up and down his stat sheet.
Through Monday’s 9-8 win over the Seattle Mariners at Fenway Park, the left-handed Abreu, 27, was hitting .254 with 23 home runs and 70 RBIs. He led Boston with 239 total bases, and his 23rd long ball — a solo shot against the New York Yankees on Saturday — moved him past last year’s career high of 22.
But ask Abreu, a right fielder, about those numbers, and he is quick to downplay them in any conversation.
To him, the biggest change in his career has not been a statistic. It has been learning to understand himself as a hitter. Recognizing when something is not working, identifying what needs to change, and trusting the process enough to make the adjustment, have all paid major dividends.
“Knowing when I’m slumping, when I’m going through a rough patch. Knowing, and recognizing, exactly what I’m doing, and what I need to do to get out of the slump,” Abreu told Caplin News last week at loanDepot Park before his Red Sox took on the Miami Marlins. “That’s what has really helped me this season.”
It’s a simple approach that has produced one of the strongest offensive seasons of his young career. And it comes during a year in which Abreu has already experienced what it feels like to win a championship.
VENEZUELA’S VICTORY TURNS INTO BOSTON PRIDE
Before returning to Boston for his fourth MLB season, Abreu was a key cog in the historic run by Venezuela at the World Baseball Classic. In front of 36,190 loud and proud fans in Miami, Venezuela defeated the United States, 3-2, on March 17, winning the country’s first WBC title. The 5-foot-10, 215-pound Abreu contributed a solo home run in the fifth inning of the title game, helping Venezuela build a lead before Eugenio Suárez’s ninth-inning RBI double ultimately delivered the championship.
The tournament gave Abreu, a native of Maracaibo, Venezuela, a chance to represent his homeland on one of the grandest stages of international baseball. It also placed him back in a familiar environment, surrounded by players from back home who competed for something larger than any regular-season feat.
Months later, after that same sense of collective purpose followed him to Boston, he’s led a resurgent team back into postseason contention in the American League.
Abreu said the Red Sox clubhouse has benefited from having several Venezuelan players together, including All-Star first baseman Willson Contreras, who joined the team this season.
“There are a lot of Venezuelans on the team this year, which makes it a little easier,” Abreu said. “It’s good to have people from your home country on the team.”
Abreu described the Venezuelan players as a support system, particularly when one of them is struggling. They talk through problems, help each other identify adjustments and try to keep one another moving forward.
“When one of us is going through a rough patch, we talk it out among ourselves,” he said, “and help each other make the necessary adjustments.”
For a team trying to push its way back into the AL playoffs, Abreu believes that unity can become just as important as production.
“Sticking together,” Abreu said, “is going to be the key for the team.”
So far, so good. As the calendar turned into September, the Red Sox sat at 75-63, comfortably in the AL’s second wild-card slot.
THE NUMBERS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES
Abreu’s production has been too difficult to ignore.
A fixture in the clean-up spot for interim manager Chad Tracy, his .798 OPS was tied for 25th in all of MLB, through Monday, and he’s even added eight stolen bases, good enough for fourth on the Red Sox.
In a midsummer stretch that saved its season, Boston put together a 32-5 run around the All-Star break before cooling off, leaving the team needing contributions from throughout the roster as the season approaches its final month. A postseason berth isn’t a guarantee, but the Red Sox are closing in.
“Wilyer, obviously, he’s just electric,” said Tracy, who has credited Abreu with fueling the Red Sox resurgence, as his teammates have followed his lead. “With the way they’re going, they feel confident in themselves, they feel good about themselves … and it shows.”
Yet even after reaching milestone after milestone, Abreu’s focus remains less on what he has accomplished, and more on what he can still improve.
“There are still a lot of games left, and we still need to make more adjustments,” he said. “I do hope to finish this season on a high note and do what I know how to do: get out on the field, have fun, do my best, give 100%.”
That mindset has allowed him to navigate the inevitable ups and downs of a 162-game season. Abreu said 2026 has included plenty of both.
“I’ve stayed healthy, I’ve kept playing, I haven’t had any injuries, thank God, and that’s what has also helped me to keep improving, make the necessary adjustments, and all that,” he said.
ONE CHAMPIONSHIP SIMPLY ISN’T ENOUGH
For Abreu, the personal numbers are not the ultimate destination this year. He doesn’t have a specific statistical goal he is chasing as the season enters its final stretch.
Instead, his priorities are much simpler: stay healthy, remain on the field, help Boston win its first since 2018, and keep his championship year going strong.
“The main goal is to win, that is, to keep winning games,” Abreu said. “To go far in the postseason and, God willing, win the World Series. I think that’s the main goal right now.”
While Venezuela’s WBC title provided Abreu with a historic moment in March, the Red Sox now offer him a different challenge in carrying that experience into October. As it stands, if the season ended today, Boston would face the rival Yankees in the wild-card round.
For now, he is not interested in projecting what the final numbers might look like. He would rather let them take care of themselves.
“I just want to stay healthy, stay on the field doing what I love,” he said, “and try to have fun.”
The numbers, meanwhile, keep talking.
And they are saying plenty.
