William Contreras is already a World Series champion.
At the end of the 2021 season, he celebrated on the field with his Atlanta Braves teammates as they concluded their campaign with one final win to earn rings.
Contreras now is trying to win the World Series again, but he’s no longer doing it in Atlanta.
He’s the star catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers, and at least for the larger baseball audience, it might be easy to forget that he ever played for the Braves.
But that’s the irony of these playoffs specifically for Atlanta: The Braves were eliminated by the Dodgers, and now they’re watching one of their former players trying to knock L.A. out of the postseason instead.
So far so good, too, as Contreras homered in Game 2 to give the Brewers a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven NLCS.
How Braves Lost William Contreras
Contreras signed the minor league ladder with the Braves, who had originally signed him as a teenager out of Venezuela.
He made it up for four games during the 2020 season, going 4-for-10 with a double.
Then in 2021, he played in 52 games and batted .215 with a .399 OPS and eight home runs.
He broke out in 2022 in 97 games with 14 doubles, 20 homers, a .278 average and an .860 OPS.
After that year, though, the Braves traded Contreras away.
They were involved in a three-team deal with the Brewers and the Oakland Athletics.
The Braves did the trade to end up with catcher Sean Murphy from the A’s. The only other players of note, in retrospect, were speedster Esteury Ruiz going to Oakland and reliever Joel Payamps going to Milwaukee.
Murphy was a strong player at first for Atlanta, but it turns out that having Contreras would’ve worked out even better.
William Contreras With Brewers
This was the end of Contreras’ fourth full season with Milwaukee. He has made the All-Star Game twice for the Brewers.
Over his four years, he has played in 593 regular season games and batted .275 with a .792 OPS that includes 130 doubles, four triples and 75 home runs.
Contreras has a consistent bat at the plate to go with a great eye and some legitimate power. He always bats in the heart of Milwaukee’s order these days.
So far in these playoffs, Contreras is proving to enjoy the stage. He’s 9-for-23 (.391 batting average) with three home runs.
He also homered twice in last season’s playoffs for Milwaukee, which ended at the hands of the Dodgers — they’re trying to exact some revenge this time around.
All Atlanta can do is watch, just like Contreras did on his Game 2 home run to dead centerfield that he just stood and observed as it soared a long way beyond the fence.
Braves Can Only Watch as William Contreras Shines for Brewers