Catcher position in 2027

[MrTPlush]

[Split from the Mark Attanasio appreciation thread]

 

On 10/16/2026 at 7:51 PM, wallus said:

I will remember this thread when they don't extend Contreras. I am already reading all over from fans that they should pay him. (They should not)

I hope they don't deviate from what has made them successful

I’ve been pretty anti-Contreras extension, but if they won it all? Idk, I could see the logic in taking all that extra cash flow from a WS win to extend him. He is the leader of the pitching staff, a big locker room guy, and is a stud in October. 

Personally, I think he is the one guy I definitely wouldn’t trade this offseason and ride out his contract. Hopefully he plays his way out of here with a FA contract or he starts to fall off and we can keep him around cheaper. I just can’t fathom the team not bringing him back after this run, imo.

Edited 2 hours ago by Team Canada

[wallus]

11 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

I’ve been pretty anti-Contreras extension, but if they won it all? Idk, I could see the logic in taking all that extra cash flow from a WS win to extend him. He is the leader of the pitching staff, a big locker room guy, and is a stud in October. 

Personally, I think he is the one guy I definitely wouldn’t trade this offseason and ride out his contract. Hopefully he plays his way out of here with a FA contract or he starts to fall off and we can keep him around cheaper. I just can’t fathom the team not bringing him back after this run, imo.

I would ride his contract out and make replacing him a priority for the following season

[Frisbee Slider]

12 hours ago, MrTPlush said:

I’ve been pretty anti-Contreras extension, but if they won it all? Idk, I could see the logic in taking all that extra cash flow from a WS win to extend him. He is the leader of the pitching staff, a big locker room guy, and is a stud in October.

If we can look at Sean Murphy, Salvador Perez, JT Realmuto, Will Smith and to a lesser extent, Cal Raleigh and like what we see from aging catchers then maybe we take the Yelich franchise player money and give it to Contreras? I think nearly all aging veterans disappoint, though.

Let William play out his final year in Milwaukee.

[MrTPlush]

11 minutes ago, Frisbee Slider said:

If we can look at Sean Murphy, Salvador Perez, JT Realmuto, Will Smith and to a lesser extent, Cal Raleigh and like what we see from aging catchers then maybe we take the Yelich franchise player money and give it to Contreras? I think nearly all aging veterans disappoint, though.

Let William play out his final year in Milwaukee.

In the end I’m pretty neutral on whatever they decide to do…though I think it would be pretty lame to trade him at this point. 
 

Attanasio has been pretty hands off these days, so I doubt Arnold would try to extend him. If they do, it’s because Attanasio opened the checkbook to do it, so I’d probably look at the contract a little differently.

 

[TURBO]

Trading Contreras before/during the 2027 season would be absolute insanity.  It's not like we have a young stud catcher banging on the door.  We do not!

William is what we have, and keeping him one final season for another run at (another?) title is the only way to handle this.

I doubt he'd take a 2-3 year extension, which is what I'd like to offer him, so you let him play out his contract and go from there.  I'd offer him 2 years at $50 million and see what he says.  Hell, I'd go 2 years $60 million if that would help, but again, I don't see him taking a contract that short.  3 years at most, we don't need to pay for his declining years, we are already doing that with our fading superstar...

It would be such a hit to every aspect of this team to trade William before his contract runs out.

Dare I say, he very well may be the heart and soul of this team, and that is worth something.

Keep him, it would be asinine to do anything else.

 

[BrewerFan]

5 hours ago, TURBO said:

Trading Contreras before/during the 2027 season would be absolute insanity.  It's not like we have a young stud catcher banging on the door.  We do not!

William is what we have, and keeping him one final season for another run at (another?) title is the only way to handle this.

I doubt he'd take a 2-3 year extension, which is what I'd like to offer him, so you let him play out his contract and go from there.  I'd offer him 2 years at $50 million and see what he says.  Hell, I'd go 2 years $60 million if that would help, but again, I don't see him taking a contract that short.  3 years at most, we don't need to pay for his declining years, we are already doing that with our fading superstar...

It would be such a hit to every aspect of this team to trade William before his contract runs out.

Dare I say, he very well may be the heart and soul of this team, and that is worth something.

Keep him, it would be asinine to do anything else.

 

We don't have a "stud" but... Quero is still a pretty nice prospect. 

I'd take the money we WOULD give to Contreras and turn it and focus on Made. We can afford to have a little less from behind the plate if you're getting a Jose Ramirez type player at 3B. 

That said... he really had kinda given the Brewers an edge. 

[markedman5]

12 minutes ago, BrewerFan said:

We don't have a "stud" but... Quero is still a pretty nice prospect. 

I'd take the money we WOULD give to Contreras and turn it and focus on Made. We can afford to have a little less from behind the plate if you're getting a Jose Ramirez type player at 3B. 

That said... he really had kinda given the Brewers an edge. 

We have no idea what we have with Quero because of his injuries …….lots of questions there now.

[TURBO]

23 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

We have no idea what we have with Quero because of his injuries …….lots of questions there now.

Yeah, I think we have been a bit spoiled at catcher with Contreras.  I think we will find out just how spoiled as soon as he is gone.  His handling of the pitchers, leadership, etc is going to be really tough to replace.

Quero is a BIG question mark, which is hard to believe based on what we all thought of him a couple years ago.

[BrewerFan]

38 minutes ago, markedman5 said:

We have no idea what we have with Quero because of his injuries …….lots of questions there now.

We have some idea. His pop times were back to 1.90 this past year. If he DOESN'T take another step and improve upon that, you've still got a guy with better pop times than Contreras. 

He's not the hitter than Contreras is obviously. Better in terms of blocking... but we also don't know what Contreras will be at 32-years-old... or 34. He's going to be just shy of 30 when he hits free agency... and I don't think he's taking a discount at this point. I was all in favor 3 years ago or 2 years ago. I don't think extending him is an option at this point. 

[markedman5]

He didn’t catch for almost the entire 2nd half of the season……..almost exclusively DHed

[SeaBass]

22 hours ago, TURBO said:

Trading Contreras before/during the 2027 season would be absolute insanity.  It's not like we have a young stud catcher banging on the door.  We do not!

To me it kind of feels like they've always just managed to find a guy to be their catcher and it's gone well. Maybe I'm forgetting a recent stretch or mini-stretch where they haven't but I'd trust them to do it again.

I'm not saying I'm against letting him ride out his time though, nothing one bit wrong with that.

[sveumrules]

5 hours ago, SeaBass said:

To me it kind of feels like they've always just managed to find a guy to be their catcher and it's gone well.

Contreras Era (2023-Present)
120 wRC+ (t-1st) | 21.4 WAR (2nd)

Pina/Grandal/Narvaez Era (2017-22)
92 wRC+ (t-10th) | 21.0 WAR (3rd)

Lucroy Era (2010-16)
102 wRC+ (3rd) | 42.8 WAR (1st)

Overall (2010 to Present)
103 wRC+ (2nd) | 85.2 WAR (1st)

Yup, Brewers catchers are coming up on two decades of dominance now.

The Giants are second in catcher WAR since 2010 at 71.1 WAR (a full fourteen wins behind the Brewers) with Gerald "Buster" Posey accounting for 51.5 WAR on his own.

The Braves (64.2 WAR) and Yankees (62.3 WAR) are the only other teams to crack 60 WAR at catcher since 2010.

[mrn1ceguy]

3 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Contrereas Era (2023-Present)
120 wRC+ (t-1st) | 21.4 WAR (2nd)

Pina/Grandal/Narvaez Era (2017-22)
92 wRC+ (t-10th) | 21.0 WAR (3rd)

Lucroy Era (2010-16)
102 wRC+ (3rd) | 42.8 WAR (1st)

Overall (2010 to Present)
103 wRC+ (2nd) | 85.2 WAR (1st)

Yup, Brewers catchers are coming up on two decades of dominance now.

The Giants are second in catcher WAR since 2010 at 71.1 WAR (a full fourteen wins behind the Brewers) with Gerald "Buster" Posey accounting for 51.5 WAR on his own.

The Braves (64.2 WAR) and Yankees (62.3 WAR) are the only other teams to crack 60 WAR at catcher since 2010.

One thing this doesn't capture, and I'm not sure how you could capture it, but is Contreras's ability to push all the right buttons with the pitchers.  It seems he's able to help control our pitchers in a way that gets the absolute best out of them whether that is calming them down, getting the extra focus, working to the right pitch sequence or all the other intangibles I don't even notice.  Even if Contreras would fall off offensively to a 220/300/700 type player for his 30s, I think the boon he gives our pitchers is worth extending him at market rates to ensure our pitchers keep putting out their best possible outcomes.  He should be our Salvador Perez.

[AKCheesehead]

He’s going to need to plan for pay raises and promotions for some of the staff because other teams are certain to try to poach anyone they can from us. Not that it’s anything new but it’s bound to be more of the case than ever before. 

[owbc]

22 hours ago, TURBO said:

Yeah, I think we have been a bit spoiled at catcher with Contreras.  I think we will find out just how spoiled as soon as he is gone.  His handling of the pitchers, leadership, etc is going to be really tough to replace.

Quero is a BIG question mark, which is hard to believe based on what we all thought of him a couple years ago.

Mariners fans said the same thing about Cal Raleigh a year ago. And they were proven right.

Unfortunately, they have been proven right while Cal Raleigh is still on the roster with a freshly-minted $100M contract.

I get that Bill could be the next Salvador Perez but even Salvy's production has been pretty brutal for 3 of the past 4 years. I think we should be thankful that we can run it back with him next year and go for one more shot at a championship (or back-to-back with any luck). Let someone else pay for his decline. 

[Samurai Bucky]

1 hour ago, owbc said:

Mariners fans said the same thing about Cal Raleigh a year ago. And they were proven right.

Unfortunately, they have been proven right while Cal Raleigh is still on the roster with a freshly-minted $100M contract.

I get that Bill could be the next Salvador Perez but even Salvy's production has been pretty brutal for 3 of the past 4 years. I think we should be thankful that we can run it back with him next year and go for one more shot at a championship (or back-to-back with any luck). Let someone else pay for his decline. 

Here is a comparison of William and the Big Dumper over the past three years (not including this year).  Looks like Raleigh had an outlier of a year.  I like Contreras' consistency... and he had serious left hand issues last year.  Contreras is a very important cog in this wheel.  He should get paid.

[MoreTrife]

6 hours ago, sveumrules said:

Contreras Era (2023-Present)
120 wRC+ (t-1st) | 21.4 WAR (2nd)

Pina/Grandal/Narvaez Era (2017-22)
92 wRC+ (t-10th) | 21.0 WAR (3rd)

Lucroy Era (2010-16)
102 wRC+ (3rd) | 42.8 WAR (1st)

Overall (2010 to Present)
103 wRC+ (2nd) | 85.2 WAR (1st)

Yup, Brewers catchers are coming up on two decades of dominance now.

The Giants are second in catcher WAR since 2010 at 71.1 WAR (a full fourteen wins behind the Brewers) with Gerald "Buster" Posey accounting for 51.5 WAR on his own.

The Braves (64.2 WAR) and Yankees (62.3 WAR) are the only other teams to crack 60 WAR at catcher since 2010.

I wonder how much of that is attributable to Charlie Green, who has been involved with Brewer catchers for a long time. 

[AKCheesehead]

40 minutes ago, Samurai Bucky said:

Here is a comparison of William and the Big Dumper over the past three years (not including this year).  Looks like Raleigh had an outlier of a year.  I like Contreras' consistency... and he had serious left hand issues last year.  Contreras is a very important cog in this wheel.  He should get paid.

Every freaking time I see “The Big Dumper” I get confused for a second, wondering what Najeh Davenport has to do with anything 

[Underachiever]

Willson got 5/$87.5 from the Cardinals. Given William's competitive nature, I think he needs at least one dollar more.

[igor67]

Those WAR numbers really surprised me. But even without that track record of developing catchers, I just can't see paying for the decline.

[Playing Catch]

If Contreras was the best player on a lousy team, said team should re-sign him, IMO. I think he can be a building block for a winning team because of the combination of production and intangibles. He doesn't need to be an all-star to have real value, particularly his ability to stay healthy/play hurt ("the most important ability is availability", after all). His ability to alter his hitting approach, his not being a total slug on the basepaths.

If one were to try and predict a catcher to have a long successful career into his 30's, Contreras just might be that guy.

But for the Brewers, with their current roster and payroll, I don't think it makes sense for the Brewers to re-sign him. They've got too many young talents that will need to be paid in upcoming seasons.

[Underachiever]

I believe that I am asked, as a fan, to form attachments to these players. Buy their jerseys, cheer them on. Then, I need to put those feelings aside and say, "No, you can't re-sign this guy. Don't pay for the decline." I can't do that. He is becoming a top-5 all-time Brewer for me. The video of him on the ground, telling Frelick to slide in Game 2 of the SD series is a favorite moment. 

I would love to see William extended. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. I'd give him 5 years. Tear up next year's contract (15.5 mil), give him 5/100 (essentially 4/84.5). Takes him through his age 33 season. Get him a 1B glove for a few games a year and plan on DHing him a little more after Yelich is gone. 

[RobertCrawley]

We're a small market team. We have to trade Contreras for some arms or bats. I love that Willie Adames was with us for another year but, I think we would've been much better off if we had gotten a couple of potential starters for him. Contreras is a great catcher, maybe the best in all of baseball, but we're in the World Series because we're willing to make hard trades.

[MrTPlush]

7 minutes ago, RobertCrawley said:

We're a small market team. We have to trade Contreras for some arms or bats. I love that Willie Adames was with us for another year but, I think we would've been much better off if we had gotten a couple of potential starters for him. Contreras is a great catcher, maybe the best in all of baseball, but we're in the World Series because we're willing to make hard trades.

And we may lose it because of hard decisions. What if we didn’t trade Peralta…or probably a little more relevant with less what if, what if we had traded for Skubal? Everyone is flying high thinking “WE DIDN’T NEED SKUBAL” right now. How we feeling about that if we lose 4/7 games? 

Does anyone regret trading for Sabathia? Anyone regret not trading Fielder?

I don’t think there needs to be a hard strict rule to these decisions. I think that limits a orgs options and abilities. Thankfully, I don’t think the Brewers Brass thinks that way after the aggressive Skubal pursuit. I would guess the Brewers will go into the offseason pretty neutral on bringing him back, keeping the door open to go either direction based on offers.