Brewers star catcher escapes IL stint after frightening home plate collision Sunday

Injuries have been a huge story for Milwaukee Brewers players in 2024, but most of those stories have been on the pitching side. When it's come to position players, the team has mostly escaped major injuries to their top players.

Yes, outfielder Christian Yelich and first baseman Rhys Hoskins did miss some time this season with separate stints on the injured list. But in the grand scheme of things, the position player group has held up pretty well.

On Sunday, there was fear for a moment that this might no longer be the case. With the Brewers clinging to a one-run lead in the bottom of the ninth in their Father's Day matchup against the Reds, Blake Perkins fired a rocket to Contreras for a walkoff out at the plate, one resulting in a collision that left the team's backstop laying face down on the ground after the final out of the game was called.

The Brewers training staff was called out to tend to Contreras who eventually walked off under his own power. But it would be learned after the game that the potential All-Star starter would unsurprisingly be evaluated for a concussion, putting his future availability for the team at risk.

This time, the injury news was positive as it appears Contreras won't land on the Brewers injured list.

Fears of Contreras being unavailable for some time actually intensified prior to Monday's game when fans noticed the absence of the star in the announced starting lineup. In addition, word on the beat was that Triple-A catcher Eric Haase, who was close to making the team out of spring training, was with the Brewers in Los Angeles.

Those fears were quickly put to rest. Per MLB.com Brewers beat writer Adam McCalvy, Contreras was showing no symptoms of a concussion after his evaluation and was just being given a day off. Milwaukee has no intent on putting the catcher on the injured list.

The news got even better the closer it got to game time. Per McCalvy, Brewers manager Pat Murphy is making his starting catcher available off the bench tonight in their road game against the Angels, further stating Contreras "is going to be fine."

The Brewers have weathered injury storms in the position player group to consistently have a top 10 offense in 2024. Any extended loss of Contreras would be very tough to combat, though, as the 26-year-old is among NL leaders in several offensive categories and is the current favorite per All-Star voting to start in the Midsummer Classic.

Brewers fans deserved some positive injury news for a change and this certainly qualifies. It would be nice if this started a new trend going forward.