The Milwaukee Brewers catching lab is at it again with William Contreras

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Milwaukee Brewers v Seattle Mariners / Steph Chambers/GettyImages
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The Milwaukee Brewers are widely lauded for the work of their pitching lab, developing pitchers to elite levels and pitchers adding more pitches to their arsenals. However, another aspect that the Milwaukee Brewers have done a fantastic job at over the past five years is turning average or below average defensive catchers, into elite defensive backstops. William Contreras is the latest to wow Major League Baseball with his rapid defensive improvement from his previous team to coming to the Milwaukee Brewers.

The trade to acquire William Contrerars when originally completed was an A grade trade, however with Contreras making noticable defensive strides, the grade may be an A+ on acquiring him.

Examples of the Milwaukee Brewers developing defensive catchers

Going all the way back to 2018 to look at players like Manny Pina, Victor Caratini and Yasmani Grandal, the trend begins.

Yasmani Grandal was a great defensive catcher in 2018 with the Los Angeles Dodgers, ranking 10th in framing runs, posting a strike frame rate of 50.7 percent, blocking above average of +6 and caught 35 percent of steal attempts. In 2019, Grandal put up very similar numbers, 13 framing runs, 51 percent framing strike rate, +5 blocking above average and 31 percent caught stealing rate. In 2018 with the Dodgers, Grandal was the second best pitch framer in baseball, in 2019 with the Brewers he was number three. Grandal on his own doesn't suggest the Brewers did anything to dramatically improve defensive catchers, but it begins to set a precedent.

In 2018, Manny Pina, then a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, was the 27th ranked catcher in baseball in pitch framing and Victor Caratini, then a Chicago Cub, was 29th. In 2019, Pina jumped up to number 13, essentially a 100 percent improvement jumping up 14 spots. Caratini improved slightly up to 21st.

Victor Caratini in 2020, his final season with the Chicago Cubs, had a solid season in the Covid shortened year, finishing as the number seven pitch framing catcher, potentially foreshadowing some potential behind the plate. In 2021, Victor Caratini signed with the San Diego Padres and was the number 50 pitch framer, potentially squashing the view the Padres had of Caratini and prompting his trade to the Brewers. In 2022 Caratini made a large jump from number 50 back up to number 26. 26th isn't a great spot to be and necessitated the Milwaukee Brewers to be on the look out for catcher help but it was a significant jump for Caratini.

2019 was Omar Narvaez's final season with the Seattle Mariners before joining the Milwaukee Brewers in 2020. Back in 2019 with Seattle, Narvaez was the 56th ranked pitch framing catcher. One season with Milwaukee and he was number one! Not only was Narvaez the number one pitch framer in 2020, but he was number one again in 2021! Narvaez dealt with some injuries last summer but still finished 2022 as the number seven pitch framer in all of baseball.

Improvements by catchers in their final season with former teams to first year as a Milwaukee Brewer

The Milwaukee Brewers catching lab wastes no time improving catchers in their first seasons in Milwaukee. William Contreras is just the latest example.

Looking at Victor Caratini, in 2021, his lone season with the San Diego Padres he posted -3 framing runs, last summer with the Brewers he was +1. Caratini's framing strike rate in 2021 was 46.3 percent, in 2022 it rose over two percent to 48.4 percent. Victor Caratini to his credit was a pretty good blocker behind the plate in 2021, posting a blocks above average of +5, Caratini was still above average in 2022 at +1. As for baserunners attempting to steal, Caratini posted the same percentage in 2021 and 2022 at 35 percent, however Caratini faced 31 attempts in 2022 as opposed to just 17 in 2021.

Manny Pina is a little harder to study because he spent most of his major league career has a member of the Milwaukee Brewers. However, Pina posted +1 framing runs, +3 blocking above average and a strong 63 percent caught stealing percentage on a low eight attempts in 2020. Also in 2020, Pina was among league leaders in framing strike rate at 53.9 percent. Pina improved in nearly aspect in 2021, +3 framing runs, +6 blocking above average and still 42 percent caught steal on three times the amount of attempts he faced in 2020. His framing strike rate went down a little bit to 49 percent but was still a strong performer.

Pina signed with the Atlanta Braves in 2021 and played with the man who would become the Brewers 2023 starting catcher William Contreras. In 2022 Pina struggled to replicate any of his strong numbers from the two years prior, age and injuries certainly may be a factor, however Pina had zero framing runs, zero blocking above average, didn't catch the one baserunner that attempted a steal against him and a framing strike rate of just 43.5 percent. The fall of could be explained away by age however examining the Brewers catching lab with other players, the answer certainly could be his departure from Milwaukee.

Arguably the strongest example of the Milwaukee Brewers catching lab is Omar Narvaez. In 2019, his final season with the Seattle Mariners, Narvaez posted -6 framing runs, -20 blocking above average, framing strike rate of 46.6 percent and caught just 13 percent of 39 baserunner attempts to steal. In 2020 Narvaez improved in ever single area exponentially. Narvaez recorded +5 framing runs, +1 blocking above average, a framing strike rate of 53.6 percent and caught over double the amount of baserunners as he did his final year in Seattle at 28 percent. In 2021, Omar Narvaez became an even better pitch framer, posting +10 framing runs.

The Milwaukee Brewers are at it again with William Contreras

William Contreras is just the latest stud to be affected strongly by the Milwaukee Brewers catching lab. As previously mentioned, when first acquired, William Contreras defense was something that was to be expected as below average. However, the opposite has been true as Contreras finds himself near the top of the league in pitch framing, arguably his biggest defensive concern.

In 2021, Contreras faced a somewhat small sample size of pitches, 1,317 and finished 45th in pitch framing, three spots behind his brother in Chicago, Willson Contreras. 2022, despite William Contreras being an All-Star with the Braves, got slightly worse behind the plate, finishing 48th in pitch framing. This move down in the ranks is clearly cause for wonder if Contreras could improve as a defensive catcher. However, the start to the 2023 season with the Milwaukee Brewers is strongly encouraging as William Contreras, according to Statcast, currently sits second in all of Major League Baseball in pitch framing. Brother Willson still sits down at 41. As the chart in the link shows, Contreras has been very good at turning low pitches into strikes.

Looking at the metrics brought up with other catchers the Milwaukee Brewers have helped improve, only Omar Narvaez has seen a bigger improvement from his previous team to his first year with the Milwaukee Brewers. William Contreras has made massive improvements in every single aspect. In 2022 Contreras had -4 framing runs, in the first month of 2023 Contreras is at +1 framing runs.

Blocking above average, in 2022 Contreras was -3, so far in 2023 he is at +4. William Contreras has shown his athleticism behind the plate as he currently ranks as the number five pitch blocker according to statcast. As the visual shows, Contreras has done a fantastic job blocking pitches in the dirt.

His caught stealing percentage has also rapidly improved, in 2022 Contreras caught just seven percent of 29 runners stealing. So far this season Contreras has caught 2-of-6 steal attempts, admittedly a small sample size but an encouraging percentage.

Now framing rate, the area of possibly biggest concern for William Contreras has been an area of strong improvement. In 2022, William Contreras' framing strike rate was at 44.9 percent, so far in 2023 Contreras has a framing strike rate of 49 percent, an over four percent improvement.

As the group of work over the last five years and several players shows, the Milwaukee Brewers have done a fantastic job of taking below average defensive catchers and turning them into players near the top of the league in several defensive metrics.

1 Player Moving up the Brewers Depth Chart, 2 Moving Down. dark. Next

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