What does the money mean for Contreras? Could he follow his brother to 1st base someday?

[jesusoftheapes]

Is the amount the Brewers agreed to with William a sign this could be the last year in Milwaukee before you see him packaged and moved for big returns?  I get the Arbitration money they agreed to pay in 2025 but the big jump up in money for 26' and Jefferson Quero being Pat Murphy's "favorite prospect ever" make me wonder if William and the Brewers agreed to his value jumping that much or are they planning a big deal to move William when the 2026 offseason gets underway and score a big haul?

Could William be considered the 1st base solution of the future like his brother in St Louis?  Would him being a 1st baseman increase his value while opening the door to a Quero at Catcher future for the Brewers with a William Contreras living in harmony here at 1st?   I would LOVE it .  Instantly our 1st base problem becomes a massive strength and our best player has a new start at an easier position that allows him to focus more on hitting.     The best catcher in the game today would be the best 1st baseman overnight.  Quero is better than William is at Catching.   That is a lot to say about a player going against Contreras on the roster but it is the truth.   Quero is a special player with homegrown defensive chops that are rare in this MLB.   His bat is nowhere near William but it's also more than good enough.  Keeping them both here and playing at the same time would be a nice addition to our entire offense and defense for that matter.   I think Williams 1st base would be GG level day one.     I would love to see him on 1st.    Would anyone else?

Or does it mean the Brewers think he will be worth $12+ million for 2026?   That they just appreciate him and his body of work enough to pay out 12 million dollars for his services and plan to pay him accordingly ?

Whichever way it falls I am sure glad that guy is on our side and think this season should be another banner season for the young slugger.    

[markedman5]

I have no idea if he will be traded next winter or not……but I  doubt it.

I’m much surer that he won’t be playing first base next year for us or anyone else.. His brother was moved because he was a defensive liability……..William is not……and he is well aware that elite catchers get paid more than good first basemen.

[wallus]

I would rather trade Contreras for a large return than play him at first base.

[MoreTrife]

I'd rather trade Quero mid season and sign Contreras to a contract. 5 year $125. William is better catcher than Willson and WIllson is still hitting pretty well at 32 so William's offense will probably continue. 

[ghostdrew]

19 minutes ago, MoreTrife said:

I'd rather trade Quero mid season and sign Contreras to a contract. 5 year $125. William is better catcher than Willson and WIllson is still hitting pretty well at 32 so William's offense will probably continue. 

No

[bigred]

1 hour ago, MoreTrife said:

I'd rather trade Quero mid season and sign Contreras to a contract. 5 year $125. William is better catcher than Willson and WIllson is still hitting pretty well at 32 so William's offense will probably continue. 

Imo, there's no way the Brewers will spend that much to keep him. It's become obvious that, although they bought out arby years of a couple of our younger players, the odds of re-signing players after their arby years, is pretty much zero. Basically, we're the new Oakland A's(Las Vegas). 

[markedman5]

Contreras has said on more than one occasion ( according to the beat writers) that he isn’t interested in signing an extension……..

[wallus]

Signing catchers to long term deals rarely works out

[BrewerFan]

3 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Contreras has said on more than one occasion ( according to the beat writers) that he isn’t interested in signing an extension……..

I don't really think it matters because....they're not going to spend the money he'll get and he's still got 3 years left, but this feels more like the rationale used for not extending him.

The only time I've seen that he's talked about an extension or a possible extension, he was reportedly open to one and said Milwaukee "felt like home."

Doesn't mean he's going to sign one or that we should offer him one, but there always seems to be there "rumors," where...'well, we didn't want to sign him anyway.

[BrewerFan]

23 hours ago, jesusoftheapes said:

Or does it mean the Brewers think he will be worth $12+ million for 2026?   That they just appreciate him and his body of work enough to pay out 12 million dollars for his services and plan to pay him accordingly ?

It just means he's guaranteed 100K next year. The Brewers signed the same thing with Devin Williams and then opted out of that before trading him. 

[markedman5]

2 hours ago, BrewerFan said:

I don't really think it matters because....they're not going to spend the money he'll get and he's still got 3 years left, but this feels more like the rationale used for not extending him.

The only time I've seen that he's talked about an extension or a possible extension, he was reportedly open to one and said Milwaukee "felt like home."

Doesn't mean he's going to sign one or that we should offer him one, but there always seems to be there "rumors," where...'well, we didn't want to sign him anyway.

Both Hogg and Mccalvey have said on multiple occasions that they have talked to him and he isn’t interested in signing an extension.

i don’t think it really matters because he is one of ….if not the best catcher in mlb and will be looking for top dollar in his only chance for a mega deal.

Wanting to sign him has little to do with it…….in order for a guy to stay here he is going to have to do it at less than top of the market……..Wily said he loved it here but ultimately wanted the best deal he could get……..Burnes said he was open to an extension in Baltimore……..but with Boras as his agent did anyone believe it? 

[BrewerFan]

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Both Hogg and Mccalvey have said on multiple occasions that they have talked to him and he isn’t interested in signing an extension.

This is the last time I've seen Contreras actually comment on it. 

https://reviewingthebrew.com/posts/brewers-william-contreras-reportedly-open-to-extension-talks

 

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

i don’t think it really matters because he is one of ….if not the best catcher in mlb and will be looking for top dollar in his only chance for a mega deal.

Yes, he'd be expensive. That doesn't mean he's not open to one. 3 years remaining, he has a long way to make it to Free Agency. You could easily put together a 5 year deal that buys out arby, 2 years of FA for ~23-25 and lock him up long term(and increase his trade value).

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Wanting to sign him has little to do with it…….in order for a guy to stay here he is going to have to do it at less than top of the market

It's got a whole lot to do with it. Without wanting to, without actually offering, there is zero chance. We said Yelich was gone(and in hindsight...)...I'm sure there were people who were skeptical of Chourio taking a deal. when he could have hit FA by ~26-27 years old.

Wanting to do it means you...could do it. Not wanting to and not offering means there's 0 chance it will get done.

 

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Wily said he loved it here but ultimately wanted the best deal he could get

I don't know what his offers were, so I can't say he took the most money.

I can say he said he was willing to take less money to stay in Milwaukee. Both Will Sammon and Katie Woo reported Adames came right out and said he'd take less to stay here and we didn't make a serious offer. And that's fine. I'm not even complaining about it. I'm saying just resigning outselves to the fact that we can't sign anyone who has had MLB success...especially when these guys play a demanding position and are 3-4 years away from FA(unlike Adames who was on the precipice of FA...as was Burnes in Baltimore). 

2 hours ago, markedman5 said:

Burnes said he was open to an extension in Baltimore……..but with Boras as his agent did anyone believe it? 

As for Burnes, doesn't seem to matter who his agent was. He took less to play near his home. He also said he was open but nobody had approached him in Milwaukee(this after his Cy Young season and was with 4 years left). 

Signing an extension months away from being a FA vs being 3-4 years away and in your final year are, again two VERY different things. You've bet on yourself for 6 years, it's easier to do so for one more year. Had we approached Burnes a year before arbitration, maybe he's 2 years of team control. And maybe we still trade him. Tampa does this a bit. Extending doesn't mean you can't still move him, it means when you do, you're not trading a rental...and of course you're assuming far more risk. That's our downside. We also could have approached Woodruff and signed him. 

We always beat around the bush on this and pretend these players don't want to sign or are unwilling. Hard to know when you don't offer them. We made no offer to Woodruff until he was injured(at least none since 2020). None to Burnes, we reportedly made an offer to Adames of 5/100 on top of his last year(so 6/112.5). He got 7/185. This "not interested," in signing an extension was also applied to Burnes, but Burnes basically said Milwaukee couldn't or wouldn't pay him what he was worth...and then he may have said after his last year here he wasn't interested in an extension(but not when people were saying as much). 

 

But we've been acting like we just can't sign Contreras since he got here. Sean Murphy was the best catcher in that deal. He signed at the same point Contreras is now. 6/73M. 4/9/15/15/15/15 and a TO for 15.

JT Realmuto signed a 5/115 deal as a FA  and he'd been a better catcher(high paid catcher in baseball)...and he'd been a better catcher than Contreras. 

You could go to Contreras with a deal offering deal for 5 years, 80M 6/10/14/20/20+2 TO at 25/25 with an 8M SB. That'd likely improve his value in a trade...presuming you could get him to agree to a NTC and if Quero does come back, you can deal Contreras and the team is getting team control of a catcher still in his prime years. He could set himself up for life, be one of the higher paid catchers and a center piece when all of our young prospects who are making the league minimum are coming up. 

 

Just say it's not a good move for the Brewers with a top 50 prospect in the system. 
Or that you think they want to maintain financial flexibility...or whatever. 

But to say he reportedly won't sign when we haven't offered and we have him on record at least one time talking about how this is home?

 

It's like people don't believe in what the Brewers are doing. Yes, we're financially constrained. We do get a good chunk of money in revenue sharing and we should be able to spend over 105M, but...not the point. As long as they're run well and keep cycling in talent, I don't care. It's just these talking points over and over that seems like others feel like there's something more to defend. 

[MoreTrife]

Yeah I'm well aware he's not likely to, Brewers aren't likely to and well aware catchers in their 30s have risk. I'm just saying Brewers will spend on occasion in right situation and William's pedigree makes me less worried about him as long term risk. To me, definitely less of a risk than Quero becoming a solid MLB catcher. That's no sure thing. 

[jay87shot]

I think if Quero plays we there is a decent chance we trade Contreras next offseason, there is going to be a lot of turnover next year in the rotation so turning over the keys makes sense. The issue becomes who will give up 4-5 good pieces for him he won't sign an extension? Someone will, but will they have pieces we want. Come next year we may only need starting pitching and/or and corner IF. 

Ist isn't a great idea, I think Contreras compares more to Salvy Perez than his brother. If we could get him to sign a 6 year or so extension (i doubt it) he probably would be ok to catch for almost all of it.