Topps Now: May 1, 2026

I have not done too many Topps Now cards this year yet.  For the first few months of the season, there was not much to be happy about.  

I admit I was kind of skeptical when Boston traded top pitching prospect Luis Perales to the Washington Nationals for Bennett.  But I figured the team knows more than I do.  And Bennett has been mostly great since coming up.  He made his Major League debut on May 1 against the Astros.  He pitched five innings for the win, giving up five hits and one run while walking two and striking out three.  The only run was a home run by Carlos Correa.

The Red Sox won the game 3-1 thanks to a three-run homer by Jarren Duran.  Roman Anthony had three hits as well.  Aroldis Chapman got the save.

First New Cards of a Couple Major New Red Sox (and a Bunch of Rafaelas)

I procrastinated too long on the Road to Opening Day sets.  Usually I figure they are going to be available right up until Opening Day.  That was not the case with the Red Sox set this year which sold out by the time I was going to buy it.  Presumably people were wanting to get the Roman Anthony cards which could be valuable cards if he lives up to his potential.  Unfortunately, that meant I had to try to find the singles on my own, and come to grips with the likelihood that I would not get the Anthony card.  I grabbed three of the singles from separate sellers.  All three will be in this post.

Willson Contreras.  Going into the offseason last year, it was clear Boston needed a big bat in their lineup.  I was hoping for Pete Alonso and was disappointed when Boston didn't really seem to engage with him.  I firmly believe he could have hit 50 home runs in Boston.  Instead, Boston acquired former catcher Contreras from the Cardinals in exchange for Yankee killer Hunter Dobbins and pitching prospects Yhoiker Fajardo and Blake Aita.  Contreras has actually been even better than Alonso this year.  He's had a few on-field issues, but has a 161 OPS+ and 23 home runs to date.  He is the thumper the team needed.

Here's a couple new Ceddanne Rafaela cards, including a relic card.  I don't get as many relics as I used to, but I still grab them depending on the player.  And Rafaela is a player I definitely go out and get.

Sonny Gray.  Another need for the team going into the offseason was some starting pitching depth and the team made another trade with the Cardinals for Gray, who has been a valuable starter for years with the A's, Reds, Yankees, Twins and Cardinals.  Gray cost Richard Fitts and Brandon Clarke.  He has also been terrific, leading the team in wins and ERA and being dependable every time out.

Here are several more Rafaela cards, including in the middle of the scan, the third Road to Opening Day card I grabbed.  Obviously I had to grab the Rafaela card.

More Random Thoughts

A lot of the following cards are relevant to some things going on with the team.  So, I have some random thoughts.

Franklin Arias.  Boston traded several prospects for Adley Rutschmann, as well as trading Marcelo Mayer.  Some time last year, Arias became Boston's top prospect.  He is still that and looks like a potential star.  Unfortunately, Boston has had some difficulty with players taking the next step in the Majors lately.  I expect Arias will be given the opportunity to win the starting shortstop job next Spring Training, or possibly a bit later in the year.  Mayer is gone, but Trevor Story is still around.

1.  Hunter Dobbins.  Boston has traded a LOT of pitching away lately.  Dobbins was sent to the Cardinals in the Willson Contreras deal, but they also traded Richard Fitts, Brandon Clarke, Blake Aita, Yhoiker Fajardo, Kyle Harrison, Kyson Witherspoon and Anthony Eyanson.  They have been quite good at developing pitchers lately, but trading them all away is not the best way to handle those resources.  Their top prospect list is becoming a lot more hitter-heavy than it has been the last couple years.

2.  Marcelo Mayer.  I have already talked about him a great deal.  I don't have much to add right now.

1.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  He has been a lot of fun to watch lately.  He crushed the Dodgers almost single-handedly last weekend during the three-game sweep, including crushing two homers (and nearly a third) off the great Yoshinobu Yamamoto.

2.  Kristian Campbell.  Campbell remains in the minors, but has improved a lot in the last month.  He still has a chance to make it back to the Majors.  I hope he does.  Especially now.  

3.  Franklin Arias.  Yep, two Arias cards in this post.

4.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  Yep, two Rafaela cards too.  That is significantly less surprising.

Randomness from TCDB

For some reason I get a lot of trade proposals focused around the late 2000's/early 2010's.  I don't have an explanation other than people trying to clear room of an era that isn't making much impact on the hobby anymore.  A lot of the cards in this post are from that time period. 

1.  Glenn Hoffman.  This is apparently from an All Star program insert?  Maybe?  Hoffman is actually the older brother of Trevor Hoffman, which is somewhat odd since he was out of the Majors a few years prior to Trevor making his debut.  Glenn was a light-hitting middle infielder.  

2.  J.D. Drew.  Drew is one of those players I defend a lot.  There is a subset of fans that refer to his free agent contract as a huge bust.  That is simply not borne out by the results.  Drew had an .824 OPS and 114 OPS+ during his time in Boston, but if you take out his injury-riddled final season, those numbers are .853 and 121.  That's a damn good player.

3.  Roger Clemens.  This is apparently a Canadian version of this card.  I accept these minor variations occasionally.

4.  Wade Boggs.  From the Idols subset, Boggs grew up idolizing George Brett, fittingly.  Brett had more power, but they were very similar players.

5.  Ryan McGuire.  McGuire was a third-round draft pick by the Red Sox in 1993.  He never played a game with Boston though as he was traded to the Expos prior to the 1996 season in the deal that brought Wil Cordero to Boston.

6.  Michael Bowden.  Bowden was a first round pick in the 2005 draft (which produced Jacoby Ellsbury and Jed Lowrie).  He was given a few stints in Boston then was traded to the Cubs for Marlon Byrd.

7.  Josh Beckett.  I don't know why I thought of this the other night, but I remembered when Boston played Cleveland in the 2007 ALCS and Beckett was pitching in Cleveland with the Indians staked to a 3-1 lead in the series.  In an effort to mess with his head and put Boston away, his ex-girlfriend who is a minor country music star, was brought in to sing the National Anthem prior to the game.  It didn't work.  Beckett pitched eight innings, gave up one run and struck out 11 en route to a 7-1 victory.  The Red Sox came all the way back to win the series and eventually the World Series. 

8.  Clay Buchholz.  Buchholz was a first-round draft pick also in 2005.  The Red Sox had FIVE picks in the first round that year.  And all five made the Majors with Buchholz, Ellsbury and Lowrie eventually going to All Star games.  That is one hell of a draft.

9.  Jacoby Ellsbury.  Speaking of Ellsbury.  He was the best player Boston picked in that draft, especially when you consider his efforts to bring down the Yankees from the inside after signing a lucrative deal prior to 2014.

10.  Anthony Ranaudo.  Ranaudo was a highly-touted draft pick when he was a first-rounder in 2010.  He struggled in his initial Major League appearances though and was eventually traded for Robbie Ross.

11.  Anthony Ranaudo.  Here he is again.

12.  Clay Buchholz.  Had he stayed healthy, Buchholz might have won the 2013 Cy Young Award.  He was 12-1 with a 1.74 ERA.

13.  Allen Webster.  Webster was one of the big names acquired when Boston reset during the 2012 season by sending Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Josh Beckett and Nick Punto to the Dodgers.  Webster and Rubby De La Rosa were the big gets, along with Ivan DeJesus Jr., Jerry Sands and James Loney.  Eventually all of those pieces were sent elsewhere.  Sands and DeJesus were sent to the Pirates for Joel Hanrahan (and Brock Holt) prior to 2013.  Webster and De La Rosa were given a bit longer, but were eventually traded to Arizona for Wade Miley.  Webster never did develop into a reliable Major League starter.

14.  Teddy Stankiewicz.  I feel like he was some kind of relative to former Yankees infielder Andy Stankiewicz, but I can't confirm that.  He never made the Majors.

15.  Steven Wright.  Man, his off-field issues ruined what was a pretty good story.  I liked him a lot.  He had a fun knuckleball.

16.  Henry Owens.  I remember when he was a can't-miss prospect.  A first-rounder from the 2011 draft, he ended up pitching in 16 games with a 5.19 ERA.  This is why I don't get too hung up on prospects.

17.  Ted Williams.  A can't-miss prospect that didn't miss.  

Stadium Club and Select Blaster Breaks

I do not recall if I bought both of these at the same time, but I am combining them into one post anyway.  In earlier posts I mentioned having bad luck with Stadium Club and uncommonly good luck with Panini products with Red Sox cards.  That's why I will never stop buying Panini.

1.  Marcelo Mayer.  This is it from the Stadium Club blaster, which is better than usual.  I have a lot of thoughts about Monday's trade of Mayer to the Giants.  It is clear he fell out of favor with the team.  I really do think they gave up on him too soon though.  The guy was the highest draft pick by the team since the 1970's (Mike Garman went #3).  He only had 114 games under his belt.  He finishes his Red Sox career with a .223/.278/.346 line with seven homers and 32 RBIs.  A lot more was expected of him, but he is still just 23.  I hope he succeeds elsewhere.  I am not happy about what happened here and I certainly think they should have gotten more than a reliever for him, but let's see what happens with Erik Miller.

1.  Tris Speaker.  I always do better with Panini.  Speaker was probably the first superstar Boston lost to a contract dispute, unfortunately a pattern that carried on with Babe Ruth, Carlton Fisk, Fred Lynn, Roger Clemens, Mo Vaughn, Nomar Garciaparra, Jon Lester, Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts.  They need to treat their homegrown stars better.  Speaker was traded to Cleveland for Sad Sam Jones and Fred "Pinch" Thomas.

2.  Manny Ramirez.  I still hope to see Manny make the Hall of Fame some day.

3.  Roman Anthony.  I am hoping that Anthony does not fall into the same trap as Mayer did.  He has also had trouble staying on the field, but with his contract, he should be given a longer leash.  Hopefully he comes back strong in a few weeks.

TCDB Mailday

I am still working my way through the backlog of cards to show off.  Today's post is a TCDB trade without any real common theme.  Just a bunch of random stuff, though the last two subjects of player collections are here. 

1.  Zach Penrod.  This is my first card of Penrod.  It took quite awhile to grab one of these even though he was in Topps Series 2 in 2025.  Penrod appeared in seven games for the Red Sox in 2024 and had 2.25 ERA.  And that has been the sum total of his Major League experience to date.  The fact he got a card is pretty surprising.

2.  Wilyer Abreu.  Abreu is rising in my collection finally.  He has become one of the more noteworthy hitters on the team.  

3.  Ceddanne Rafaela.  What a season he is having.  Rafaela has emerged as the best player on the team this year.  He could receive MVP consideration.  

4.  Connor Wong.  Wong has settled into a pretty stable role as he has bounced back in a big way from the rough season he had in 2025.  His role is a little more questionable after a major deadline trade that I will discuss in much greater detail soon.

5.  David Ortiz.  Probably the biggest player in this package.  I added three Big Papi cards in this trade.

6.  Joe Cronin.  Cronin is an interesting story because he went from player to manager to general manager to president of the American League.  Not many players can say that.

7.  David Ortiz.

8.  Carlton Fisk.  I swear I had this card before, but I can't find it.  I must not have had it after all.

9.  David Ortiz.

10.  Wade Boggs.  I'm sure I have mentioned that Boggs was my first favorite player.

11.  Koji Uehara.  Surprisingly this individual had a bunch of these Sega Card Gen cards from Japan, so I was able to add a few, including the great Koji Uehara who had one of the most dominant seasons I have ever seen from a reliever in 2013.

12.  Junichi Tazawa.  Tazawa had an underrated career as a very capable reliever.  He was one of my favorite under-the-radar players.

13.  Jarrod Saltalamacchia.  The first (and thus far only) Red Sox catcher to have 40 doubles in a season, Saltalamacchia also led the team in home runs in 2012 with 25.  Had he been a better defensive backstop, he might have had a lengthier career.

14.  Mike Aviles.  Aviles was traded to the Blue Jays in a deal made primarily for Boston to hire manager John Farrell away from Toronto.  

15.  Ryan Kalish.  I had big hopes for Kalish to be a prominent outfielder for the Red Sox.  He had a nice 2010 season, but injuries derailed his career.

16.  Victor Martinez.  I thought a lot about V-Mart yesterday as the Red Sox made that one big trade of the deadline.  He was acquired under similar circumstances back in 2009 and immediately brought a lethal bat to Boston.  We will see if the new guy does the same.

17.  John Lackey.  Lackey looked like a horrible free agent signing after he had a terrible 2010 and 2011 season, then missed the entirety of 2012 with Tommy John surgery, but he bounced back in a big way in 2013 and was a bulldog in the postseason.  He won the clinching World Series game in 2013 and is now a Red Sox legend.  That's what winning does.

18.  Roger Clemens.  I still want to see The Rocket in the Hall of Fame.  His career was worthy well before the steroid allegations.  He and Bonds should both be in with Manny Ramirez coming later.

19.  Wade Boggs.  And closing things out with the Chicken Man.

2025 Stadium Club Blaster Break

For awhile, Stadium Club blasters were pretty plentiful near me, so I bought a few.  I almost had universally bad luck.  I think I bought four or five of them and at least two before I finally got a Red Sox card.  There were not many cards in the blaster, so it doesn't surprise me much that I was not pulling many, but the fact that I went a few before I pulled my first Red Sox card is crazy.

Well, pulling a David Ortiz card is never a bad thing, so I won't complain too much.  But there were a lot of other cards I could have pulled and just didn't.  I buy packs for two reasons: to get Red Sox cards and to shore up my tradelist.  Of those two, I would much prefer to get the Red Sox cards.  It feels like a waste of money otherwise.  But the chase is fun.