Red Sox trade fate of Willson Contreras is probably already decided

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The Boston Red Sox have had a brutal season so far.

It's not Willson Contreras' fault, though. He's absolutely raking.

As the MLB trade deadline approaches this summer, that will make Contreras a popular target for other teams.

The dilemma for Boston, though, is that Contreras has a couple more years under contract. He'll be around in future seasons. Do they trade him anyway?

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ESPN's Jeff Passan and Kiley McDaniel seem to think it's pretty unlikely. In a new article on Wednesday, they set Contreras' chances of getting traded at just 25%.

In their actual blurb about it, it sounds even less probable than that.

"Since he has been so good offensively for a team that has been so bad, trading him when he has two very reasonable years left on his deal and when the Red Sox intend to compete in the coming years gives them pause," Passan and McDaniel write. "Compound that with Contreras' no-trade clause and the feeling of other teams is that anything short of a massive overpay will make Contreras difficult to land."

Of course, there are always surprises.

"Of course, the market is an ever-evolving creature, and all it takes is one team willing to buck the trend of recent deadlines and give Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow an offer he can't refuse -- provided Contreras doesn't refuse it," the ESPN duo writes.

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Contreras is a high-energy personality, so you never know how he might respond to the idea of having a particular trade to approve.

Maybe this season will frustrate him enough that he's ready to bail this summer. Or maybe he'll want to stick around and help them turn things around.

It'll probably be another month-plus until that's known for sure, but right now, it sounds like Contreras is much more likely to stay put.