William Contreras has been the Brewers' MVP, and he'd love to stay in Milwaukee long-term

PITTSBURGH – When William Contreras stands at the plate, you truly never know what you’re going to get.

Not even if you’re a Milwaukee Brewers hitting coach.

Not even if you’re Contreras himself.

When it comes to hitters, their swings are their most precious commodities, the biggest reason that they have reached the major leagues. Stick with what works until it doesn’t. Over prolonged slumps, many might fine-tune a thing or two. A tweak here, a tweak there. But, for the most part, consistency is sought.

Not Contreras, Milwaukee’s baseball-annihilating catcher, likely team MVP and chameleon once he steps into the right-handed batter’s box.

Contreras is not at all resistant to change. Depending on how he felt in his previous game or that afternoon in the cage or his last at-bat or, heck, even the previous pitch, Contreras will adapt and make whatever tweak he feels is necessary to his stance, load or swing.

“I make adjustments every single day,” Contreras said this week at PNC Park. “Every at-bat if I have to. It depends on how I feel. If I haven’t seen the ball good, I don’t want to just stay there, you know? I’m going to make an adjustment. A toe-tap, a leg kick, my hands, whatever.

“I could never be a hitting coach.”

Take a series of Contreras’ at-bats, for example, from last Friday’s game against the Phillies.

In his first three plate appearances against Philadelphia starter Zack Wheeler, Contreras went up to the plate with a leg kick.

As Wheeler reaches his right arm back, Contreras lifts his upper left leg nearly parallel with the ground, coiling his back toward the mound in preparation of unleashing a violent, torqued swing.

But Contreras didn’t love his first three at-bats that day – two strikeouts and a lightly-hit infield single – so when he came up to the plate in the eighth inning with the game in the balance and facing flamethrowing southpaw Jose Alvarado, he made a change on the fly.

Contreras ditched the leg kick for a toe-tap. There was still a leg kick, although less pronounced than three innings prior, following the tap – a la Keston Hiura – but the timing mechanisms of the swing were nonetheless different from prior.

The toe-tap actually allowed him to keep his weight situated on his back leg just enough so that he could keep his hands back and flick the ball into right-center even though his front side flew completely open.

There have been countless instances of this from Contreras. Keep a close eye on his upcoming at-bats and who knows what you'll see — hands high, hands low, a leg kick, toe-tap and so on. Maybe he will even stand as far away from the plate laterally as you'll see any hitter ever stand in the box because he's been worked inside all game.

"I’m not totally surprised by it," Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. "The one thing you found out quickly about Williams was that he’s very instinctual about both on the defensive side of the ball and hitting-wise. I do think he’s improved some things, cleaned some things up for himself mechanically that got him to a more consistent place compared to the start of the season."

Contreras operates in this ever-tinkering fashion because he has no patience for failure as he perceives it. He never has.

“Ever since I was younger, the hitting coach would always be like, ‘Why did you start doing this or that?’” Contreras said. “Because I don’t feel comfortable sometimes, so I have to make an adjustment.”

Brewers believe Contreras' offense is just scratching the surface

When you have the offensive numbers Contreras does, both this season and for his young career, you can make as many changes on the fly as you want.

“They’re good with it because I’m hitting,” Contreras said of the Brewers staff’s thoughts on his approach. “I have good numbers. They don’t love it – nobody’s going to like it if you’re changing that much – but it’s just what I do.”

The other thing Contreras does is mash.

Contreras leads the Brewers in wins above replacement (4.2), OPS (.814), wRC+ (121), slugging (.457) and doubles (33). He’s batting .279/.357/.457 and playing every day while being the team’s primary catcher simply because they can’t live without his bat in the lineup.

While Contreras hasn’t quite duplicated the numbers he posted on offense last year with the Atlanta Braves (.278/.354/.506, 138 wRC+), there are reasons to be even more encouraged by what he’s doing at the plate this year compared to last.

The first is that Contreras is hitting at a high level for a second consecutive season, which is always an important test for a player coming off a breakout season, and doing it this year as an everyday player; he’s on pace to reach 600 plate appearances this year after finishing shy of 400 in 2022.

Contreras has also made leaps in multiple peripheral areas. His strikeout and swinging strike rates are down. His hard-hit rate and average exit velocity are up. He’s chasing less.

The Brewers are enthused to have uncovered a franchise catcher for pennies this past off-season.

“I still think we’re a little bit scratching the surface with William offensively,” Counsell said. “I think he’s capable of doing every part of the the hitting thing well. I think the ball-strike thing is good and getting better. He has an ability to get hits because he hits the ball really hard and all over the field. His swing works to every part of the field. He’s got, certainly, enough power to hit more home runs at some point in his career.

“I think there’s still upside in all three of those categories and that’s still saying he’s doing a really good job this year. It’s exciting. And we’re less than two full years in a career. That’s all really impressive.”

Contreras has become one of MLB's most valuable catchers by improving his defense

You can’t discuss Contreras’ season without touching on his defense, of course.

Contreras has improved leaps and bounds in that area since joining the Brewers.

When the Brewers acquired Contreras from the Braves in December, the book on him was that he was an offense-only catcher who struggled behind the plate.

You better believe Contreras heard all of that talk. It fueled him to buy in completely on improving his defense.

“Everybody was waiting to see how I would do,” Contreras said. “Can he catch or not? I came in the first time and everyone looked at me like, ‘They got Contreras but I don’t know if he can catch or not.’

“I’m really happy with my defense. Too many people were talking bad about my defense last year. ‘He’s a bad catcher, he can’t catch.’ Now you can look and see, I’ve been a top-five, top-three (catcher) this year.”

The numbers back Contreras up. He’s fourth among all catchers in Fangraphs’ defensive rating, which takes into account all areas of catcher defense, and fourth in framing runs.

The Brewers' belief that Contreras could develop into a better defensive catcher was well-founded, it turns out.

"The more athletic you are, the quicker you probably are to make adjustments," Counsell said. "That’s logical, I think. And I think William definitely falls into that category."

Contreras is second among all catchers in WAR, trailing only Atlanta’s Sean Murphy. He’s been a workhorse too, as only two other primary catchers have logged more plate appearances.

“Last year I just wanted to hit,” Contreras said. “I wanted to be a catcher but I just wanted to hit. Now I’m catching every day. I’m catching good pitchers. I need to learn about all their pitches and put the work in. Playing every day has helped me make that switch to focusing more on my defense.”

Contreras feels comfortable in his new home

Contreras took the news that he was being traded by the only organization he had ever known pretty hard initially, but there’s no question as to where he stands now, though.

“I love this place,” read a tweet, complete with heart and cheese emojis, posted by Contreras in August.

“I feel good,” Contreras said. “I feel like an important piece of this team and really comfortable on this team. I feel at home.”

Contreras has enjoyed Milwaukee so much so that he says he is open to extension talks, though he added he hasn’t heard any chatter on that front yet from the Brewers.

“Of course,” Contreras said. “I like this place. I like the playoffs. I like my teammates, I like the coaches.”

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers' William Contreras, an offseason bargain, now is Milwaukee MVP