Every championship team needs one.
They need the player that William Contreras is, and not just because of his talent. They need the mentor, the passion and the leadership. And one other facet that Brewers manager Pat Murphy has become fond of referencing, especially during this playoff run.
“We call him our pit bull. We do have to keep him in a cage, unfortunately,” Murphy said, wryly, after the Brewers clinched the NLDS in San Diego. “But he’s an incredible competitor. The intensity that he has and the way he handles that pitching staff, they know he means business, and they know he expects a lot. That’s what great catchers do.”
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This particular one does so much more than that. Throughout this postseason, he’s been an offensive force. His .395 batting average and .658 slugging percentage lead the Brewers as they head into Game 3 of the World Series. He also leads the team with three home runs, 25 total bases and an OPS of 1.135. He also gave Brewers fans that epic, rocket launcher-enhanced home run trot against the Dodgers.
In other words, he’s the guy no opposing pitcher wants to face.
His rare combination of offense and defense was the story of Milwaukee’s first World Series game in 44 years. He threw out two baserunners. He blocked key pitches in the dirt. He had two hits, a walk and an RBI, basically handing MLB a tailor-made highlight reel.
However, Contreras doesn’t have to be in the spotlight to have an impact on his club. Look at any dugout celebration after a teammate does something big, and you probably won’t find him in the dugout. Because he’s already run out in front of it, like after Sal Frelick’s World Series homer, jumping and yelling and making sure that he’s the first to congratulate any teammates heading back in.
“The celebrations are for them,” he said through an interpreter during the Brewers’ sweep of the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series. “For them to feel the energy, feel the vibes and for us to feel that together.”
It’s a natural extension of the internal fire that burns so hot, it inspires Black Cat Alley murals. He explained it himself in a 2025 essay for the Players’ Tribune, and in not-so-subtle terms, writing how “you have to kill me dead to beat me.”
Murphy knows, sharing stories about the catcher who wanted to play every single game, who played through a broken finger for most of the 2025 season, who gets mad being in the lineup as just the DH rather than catcher.
“He’s driven to a point,” Murphy said, “where sometimes you have to intervene.”
It took some getting used to, but Murphy can joke about it now. He’d just finished his press conference after Milwaukee’s first win in the 2026 playoffs, that 3-2 nailbiter against San Diego. The one where Ty France’s ninth-inning deep fly ball might have been a Padres homer, had it not hit an American Family Field roof cable. Or, as Murphy preferred to view it, the one where Bob Uecker reached down from heaven and swatted it like a basketball center.
As Murphy left the stage, flanked, as usual, by his two youngest children, Contreras and Jackson Chourio were walking up to it. Each had homered to knock in all of Milwaukee’s runs. Contreras tousled the hair of one of Murph’s kids, while Murph turned to him and deadpanned, “You ready to catch tomorrow or do you need a break?”
Contreras’ one-word answer: “Ready.”
Of course he was ready, and as the World Series arrived, Contreras made sure the entire Brewers fan base was ready, too. “BREWERS FANS, PLEASE READ!!!” was this year’s entry into his Players’ Tribune bibliography. In one sentence, he captured the difference between this playoff run and all the others that came before.
“We fear nothing,” he wrote, “because we’ve experienced everything.”
