MILWAUKEE BREWERS STORY BY TIM MUMA OF BREWERS FANATIC
MILWAUKEE — By one enormous, valuable metric, catcher William Contreras is a top-15 MLB player in 2023. And while the Milwaukee Brewers have put themselves in the driver’s seat to win the NL Central thanks to a number of contributions, Contreras is proving to be the team’s MVP and vital to the club for every reason you can think of on the diamond.
For Contreras, his MVP status with the club is spurred on by his impact offensively, defensively, and in the intangibles that are difficult to measure, like energy and in-game adjustments. He’s handling the toughest defensive spot on the field, enhancing the NL’s third-best pitching staff by ERA, and fueling the Brewers’ offense with a team-best 122 OPS+ (minimum 125 plate appearances). With less than 30 games remaining, Contreras has made himself the key cog in a postseason run.
It starts with his bat, an invaluable piece in a lineup that desperately needs offense. Contreras entered Monday with 15 homers and 33 doubles (tied for 10th in MLB) and a fantastic slash line of .282/.357/.464. That’s well above the league average for all players (.249/.320/.415), an even more impressive feat with most of his work done while catching. Getting such dynamic production from the catcher’s position is extremely valuable and a reason to give Contreras the edge over Christian Yelich in a team MVP debate.
- MLB averages for C: .237/.304/.395/.698
- MLB average for LF: .254/.331/.420/.751
So, while Yelich has had an outstanding season and did much of the heavy offensive lifting in June (.912 OPS) and July (1.015 OPS), Contreras has been even better relative to his peers. He was red hot in July (.955) and carried the Brewers’ offense in August with a .844 OPS, while Yelich slumped to a .676 OPS last month.
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Contreras has also destroyed left-handed pitching (.339/.414/.616), an area where the Brewers have been terrible for several seasons. He is the best catcher in MLB by FanGraphs WAR (fWAR). That even ranks him 15th in all of baseball, regardless of position. Among qualified catchers, his 4.3 fWAR puts him ahead of guys like Will Smith, Adley Rutschman, and Willson Contreras, his brother. Contreras is in the top five among MLB catchers in most offensive categories:
- 1st in weighted on-base average (.355)
- 1st in batting average (.282)
- 1st in RBI (66)
- 1st in doubles (33)
- 2nd in OPS (.821)
- 2nd in SLG (.464)
- 2nd in runs (68)
- 3rd in OBP (.357)
Contreras leads all catchers in Framing Runs (FRM), the metric used by FanGraphs. Many questioned whether Contreras could be an above-average defensive catcher with a reputation that labeled him “bat first” behind the dish. He has shut up his detractors and made considerable strides in framing and blocking balls, partly thanks to the Brewers’ vaunted “catching lab”. Contreras improved significantly in Blocks Above Average (22nd percentile to 85th percentile) and Framing (20th percentile to 92nd percentile). You can’t overstate the incredible value it brings to a pitching staff.
When Contreras was first acquired, he was eerily silent about the trade and later posted a group of broken hearts emojis on his Twitter account. It was understandable to a point, but after months with the team, Contreras is all in and proving to be the team MVP. It looks like he’s happy to be here, too.
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