The Milwaukee Brewers and star catcher William Contreras have not yet reached an agreement on a 2025 salary. Contreras, who is entering his first year of arbitration, filed for $900,000 more than the Brewers proposed. If the two sides cannot come to terms, then an arbitration hearing will take place in February to determine Contreras salary. Should it get that far, Contreras faces sims odds of winning his case.
William Contreras has filed for the second highest salary of a first year arbitration eligible catcher
Top first-year catcher arb salaries
1. Buster Posey $8m (9.8 WAR, 164 wRC+)
2. Cal Raleigh $5.6m (5.4 WAR, 117 wRC+, Plat. Glove)
T3. Matt Wieters $5.5m (4.1 WAR, 107 wRC+)
T3. Adley Rutschman (2.8 WAR, 104 wRC+)
5. Will Smith $5.25m (4.3 WAR, 124 wRC+) https://t.co/uqr7OjZAm3— Curt Hogg (@CyrtHogg) January 10, 2025
The Milwaukee Brewers would likely win an arbitration case
Should the Brewers and William Contreras’s salary dispute go to an arbitration hearing, it’s likely that Milwaukee would win. David Gasper of Reviewing the Brew took a look at each players statistics, WAR, and previous awards won and determined that Contreras faces an uphill battle of being rewarded the salary that he requested.
Raleigh has the edge in traditional counting stats like HRs and RBIs, plus a Gold Glove
Contreras has the edge in 2Bs, BA, OBP, SLG, OPS, OPS+ and a Top 5 MVP finish
Contreras, I’d argue, is the better player, but arb doesn’t always agree. Will be a fascinating case
— David Gasper (@dgasper24) January 10, 2025
Also, just to add to the comparison
Raleigh: 11.3 career bWAR
Contreras: 11.4 career bWARRaleigh: 13.9 fWAR
Contreras: 13.1 fWARAgain, will be fascinating. But based on WAR, Brewers may have a solid case for their comp. They could very well win if it goes to a hearing
— David Gasper (@dgasper24) January 10, 2025
Should the Milwaukee Brewers just pay William Contreras the extra $900,000?
From the outside looking in, it seems silly that the Brewers wouldn’t just pay William Contreras the extra $900,000 that he requested. Contreras was voted by the team as their MVP each of the past two seasons and going forward he will continue to play a pivotal role in their success. However, Milwaukee has been stubborn in the past before, taking Corbin Burnes to an arbitration hearing over $740,000 and Josh Hader over $2.3 million in 2020. The Brewers did win both of those cases, and it seems likely that they would win again should that be necessary with Contreras.
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