Brewers grades: A career year for all-star catcher William Contreras

Todd Rosiak and Curt Hogg provide their analysis and give out grades for the 2024 Milwaukee Brewers catchers. Second of five parts. Check back daily for more grades.

William Contreras

Contreras told the Journal Sentinel in August that he considered a solid season one in which he hit .280-plus with 20 homers and drove in between 85 and 90 runs. Mission accomplished, as he put up a line of .281/23/92/.831. About the only thing he can be dinged for offensively is he grounded into a team-leading 19 double plays. It was a career year for Contreras that also included a start behind the plate in the All-Star Game, making him just the third backstop in franchise history to accomplish the feat (Ted Simmons 1984, Jonathan Lucroy 2014). Contreras played in 155 games with 119 starts behind the plate and 34 at DH, with his insistence on being in the lineup almost every day perhaps contributing to him wearing down despite his tremendous physical conditioning. Behind the plate, he received 3,609 pitches – second-most in the majors behind only Oakland’s Shea Langeliers. But his performance dipped considerably as compared to last year as he went from the 93rd to 53rd percentile in pitch framing and from the 85th to 31st percentile in blocking. He improved slightly throwing out would-be base stealers (19.5% from 12.4%). He's worth around 5 WAR, tops on the team. If Contreras isn’t the best all-around catcher in the game, he’s easily in the top two or three. Grade: A

Eric Haase

Haase tore the cover off the ball in the spring only to fail to make the opening-day roster. But he remained in the organization after being designated for assignment and ended up on the 26-man roster for the final three months as the Brewers bucked convention by keeping three catchers. Haase played in only 30 games with 16 starts at catcher and hit .273/5/14/.819. His season highlight was a two-homer game in a one-run win at Minnesota on July 21. He threw out only 1 of 18 base stealers (5.6%) but also didn’t commit a passed ball. Haase has a club option for 2025 and showed enough to be brought back as a backup to Contreras. Grade: C

Gary Sánchez

Coming over to the Brewers on a free-agent deal with a reputation that preceded him, Sánchez popped 11 homers in 89 games and finished with a .699 OPS, right around league average. For a backup catchers go, that was about the type of season Milwaukee probably expected to get from the 31-year-old. He hit a couple of game-turning homers early in the season and also received positive reviews for his handling of the pitching staff. Grade: C-plus

More: The Brewers greatly overshot expectations in 2024, and that's what should be remembered

More: Brewers team grades: Defense, bullpen, coaching receive highest marks

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers grades: A career year for all-star catcher William Contreras