The Boston Red Sox have been pointing at a Wild Card round matchup with the New York Yankees for several weeks. While it's clear that the Red Sox will have to go on the road when they face their archrivals, they may not have the team's best slugger in the lineup.

First baseman Willson Contreras has missed the team's last five games and he is not scheduled to be in the lineup for Thursday night's game against the Cleveland Guardians. He has been out since getting hit in the hand with a pitch, and he has been hit 24 times this season.

His scheduled workout prior to Thursday night's game could go a long way to determining if Contreras will be in the lineup in the early round of the playoffs, according to Red Sox manager Chad Tracy.

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Contreras has been one of the key players in the Red Sox lineup. He leads the team with 27 home runs and he has also driven in 81 runs. Contreras is slashing .276/.387/.518, and he has also been one of the key leaders in the team's locker room. He helped rally the team when it went on a hot streak in late June and early July.

One of the primary reasons for his intensity came in a late June game against the Washington Nationals and pitcher Cade Civalli. The Washington pitcher struck out Contreras in the fourth inning, and microphones picked up Civalli yelling “sit down boy” at Contreras. That led to a bench-clearing fight that clearly fired up the Red Sox. They would lose that game and the one that followed, but won the next 15 games.