Brewers catcher William Contreras underwent a minor procedure to repair his broken left middle finger, president of baseball operations Matt Arnold told reporters (link via Adam McCalvy of MLB.com). It’ll keep him from participating in baseball activities for 5-6 weeks but is not expected to impact his availability for Spring Training.
Contreras played through the fracture for the entire 2025 season. The injury is believed to have occurred during the ’24 campaign, though the team didn’t announce the presence of a break until this past May. Contreras did not spend any time on the injured list and has not had a single IL stint in his career. Only J.T. Realmuto logged more starts or innings behind the dish this year.
The injury did seem to weigh down Contreras a little bit at the plate. He hit .260/.355/.399 with 17 home runs through 659 trips. That’s still strong production, especially from a catcher, but is below the .285/.366/.462 combined slash he posted over his first two seasons in Milwaukee.
Milwaukee declined a $12MM option on Contreras this afternoon. That’s a procedural move that isn’t related to the injury. He remains eligible for arbitration. MLBTR contributor Matt Swartz projects him for an $11.1MM salary. Contreras collected a $100K option buyout, so any arbitration salary under $11.9MM would mean the Brew Crew saved themselves a little bit of money with the option decision. Contreras will go through arbitration once more and is on track to hit free agency during the 2027-28 offseason.
