William Contreras is Becoming His Best Holistic Self as a Receiver

New, interesting data sets keep showing up on Baseball Savant this year, and this month, that means information on how catchers set up to receive the ball from one pitch to the next. With enhanced player tracking, we can tabulate and analyze how often a backstop puts each knee down in their stance. Being able to break things down that way can lend us insights into the art and science of pitch-framing, as well as the other aspects of catcher defense. For instance, it's already clear that (all else equal, which is an important and oft-violated caveat) setting up with one's left knee down tends to produce better framing numbers. So (all else equal, which is obviously often untrue) does setting up with the knee closer to the batter down.

Given that information, and given that William Contreras got dramatically better as soon as he moved from Atlanta to the Brewers prior to 2023, we might expect to see Contreras setting up with his left knee down more often than he did before the trade. We do, although he's backed off that change since his first year with the Crew. We might also expect that he'd set up with that inside knee down more often; we don't. Indeed, the two stance statuses in which Contreras has made significant and lasting changes are right-knee-down and the extension of one leg (in his case, almost always the left one) to the side.

It's interesting that we don't see Contreras leaning hard into the orthodoxy of the craft, given the Brewers' reputation for excellence in catcher instruction. League-wide, we're seeing moves toward both more left-knee-down catching and more inside-knee-down catching, but Contreras is enjoying a good, resurgent year as a framer without joining in on either trend. In fact, if you break things down by season and stance, Contreras has specifically improved when catching with his right knee down, from last year to this. That's also the stance from which he does all his good throwing work, when runners reach base. 

What's most interesting, perhaps, is that—league-wide—catchers produce more pitching runs (that is, their pitchers have more success) when they set up with the right knee down. The margin is significant, and it's not explained (at least readily) by splits in handedness or pitch type. In short, Contreras is spending most of his time over the last season and a half in the stance that engenders the most success for his pitchers, even though it's probably not helping his framing numbers.

That doesn't mean Contreras can't also be a good framer with his left knee up and his right one down. Plenty of catchers do make that work, and after he was worth -1 Framing Runs (according to Statcast) with the right knee down in 2024, he's been worth 2 Framing Runs with it down in 2025. He's adapting his style to that stance, and getting lots of value from it. Not all of that value is showing up in his framing; he might do better by the numbers if he pressed himself to get the left knee down more often.

Racking up framing numbers isn't the object of being a big-league catcher, though. Run prevention is the name of the game. Contreras is going about it in an unusual way, but he's creating value for the team by being willing to hone his right-knee-down framing and soaking up the extra value as a thrower and a target for successful pitches that comes with that stance. One way or another, it's working. Contreras continues to be a key reason why the Brewers keep opponents in check and give themselves many ways to win games. Learning the layers of intricacy involved in the position has only helped him beef up those contributions.