William Contreras - 2023
William Contreras 🇻🇪(2023)
William Jesus Contreras (Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, December 24, 1997) is a Venezuelan professional baseball catcher for the Milwaukee Brewers. Contreras was a member of the 2021 World Series champions, was named an All-Star in 2022 and won the Silver Slugger in 2023.
As a batter, he finished the 2023 season with .289 batting average (ranking 12th in the MLB), .825 OPS, 78 RBI, 17 home runs, and 156 hits. As a catcher, he led in batting average among the top catchers in the MLB, marking his best professional season so far.
Contreras has stood out this season due to his excellent offensive performance, and more importantly, his role as a catcher. To showcase his performance, there are several stats that are relevant for this analysis. Among the important ones: Arm Strength (measures the average speed of his throws in mph), Pop Time (represents the time elapsed from the moment the pitch hits the catcher's mitt to the moment the intended fielder is projected to receive his throw at the center of the base), and Caught Stealing (how many stolen base attempts resulted in outs where the catcher was involved).
In this analysis, we will examine his performance as a batter and as a catcher during this season.
I must clarify that the rankings are based on a combination of both leagues, in order to assess the significance of performance in categories that feature among the best in MLB.
If you have any questions regarding the types of pitches (Fastball, Changeup, etc.), here is all the necessary information
Enjoy it 🙌
The data provided is from Baseball Savant
1- Hits
Contreras received 2,419 pitches this season, the pitches he faced the most being FS Fastball (27%), Sinker (20%), Slider (18%), and Changeup (11%).
He recorded 156 hits(as shown in the chart below), including 100 singles, 38 doubles, 1 triple, and 17 home runs. 48.7% of the hits were with a exit velocity greater than 95 mph.
In general, 23.7% were to the left field, 55.9% to the center field, and 20.4% to the right field.
An interesting fact is that Contreras ranked 6th in the MLB in Topped % with 41.5% (Topped represents Batted Ball Events with a launch angle below 0 degrees).
With all this information, we can deduce that Contreras is a powerful player, but he doesn't generate as many home runs as one might expect from the significant number of hits going 95 mph or more. However, for a catcher, he has the best batting average among the top starters this season (3- Adley Rutschman .277, 2- Gabriel Moreno .284, 1- William Contreras .289).
The chart below displays hits heatmap, with 43 made in the center of the strike zone. Additionally, 55% of hits were made in the central zone. His favorite pitches were fastballs (four-seam, sinker, cutter), against which he achieved 85 hits (60 singles, 16 doubles, one triple, and eight home runs) with .314 batting average.
Also, Contreras was the top performer for the Brewers with a .289 batting average, the second-highest contributor with 78 RBIs, behind Willy Adames with 80 RBIs.
Finally, we have a radial chart showing the launch angle and exit velocity of the 156 hits.
An interesting fact is that Contreras has the lowest Sweet Spot% (Batted Ball Events with a launch angle between 8 and 32 degrees) average in the MLB (minimum 440 at-bats). This is intriguing as it shows his effectiveness without necessarily relying on perfect swing. Additionally, he recorded 39 barrels (Batted Ball Events with a velocity greater than 98 mph and a launch angle between 26 and 30 degrees), a great number for a catcher.
With runners in scoring position (RISP), he made a significant contribution to his team, boasting a batting average of .336, .920 OPS, 58 RBIs, and a strikeout percentage of 17%.
To add more information about the player, we can see in the chart below, Batted Ball Events (BBE), which represents any batted ball that produces a result(This includes outs, hits and errors. Any fair ball is a Batted Ball Event. So, too, are foul balls that result in an out or an error). This helps identify which pitch types the batter excels against and what kind of hits he produces.
In Contreras's case, as mentioned before, against fastballs, he produced 217 BBE, averaged .314 BA, 85 hits, and a 19.9% Strikeout rate.
Against curveballs (slider, sweeper, curve, knuckle): 146 BBE, .288 BA, 55 hits, and a 24.6% Strikeout %. Finally, his weakness, offspeed balls(Splitter, Changeup) where he only produced 54 BBE, .205 BA, 16 hits, and a 32% Strikeout rate.
Next, we have BBE by Launch Speed Angle. Surprisingly, 41.5% were Topped (below 0 degrees), and 21.3% were Flare/Burner % (Burners are BBE with low launch angle, and flares are BBE with a high launch angle). You can see more about launch angle and speed here
You can see a category labeled NULL, which are BBE that, according to Baseball Savant, did not belong to any category😑.
2- Plate Discipline
Contreras had 126 strikeouts, representing 20.6% of his total at-bats in the season. Both numbers are within the average range for amazing hitters, with exceptions like Luis Arraez, who had 34 strikeouts and 5.4% strikeout rate👽.
Now, let's talk about Swing%, within the strike zone, he had 62.6%, placing him among the top 35 with some of the lowest averages in the MLB. Considering that the majority of hits were made in the center zone, we can deduce that he has been able to identify pitches to swing at.
Similarly, Swing% outside the strike zone, Contreras ranked in the top 40 with one of the lowest averages with 24.7%. Additionally, against fastballs, he had a Whiff% of 24.2%, making it his pitch with the most contact probability.
In the chart below, we can see an overall view of strikes (called and swinging strikes). It was in the lower zone within the strike zone and outside the strike zone where he received the most strikes, with 31% and 25%, respectively. Moreover, to validate those Swing% percentages, we can see he had more Called Strikes (61%) than Swinging Strikes (39%).
Against Fastballs, he had 54 strikeouts, 47 strikeouts against Curveballs, and 25 against Offspeed balls.
Against Offspeed balls, it has been a challenge for Contreras to master these pitches, as the average launch angle was -7°, meaning that when he could make contact, it resulted in ground balls (70.4% ground balls against Offspeed balls in 2023). Additionally, he had a 37.9% Whiff, the highest among the three pitch groups.
3- Defensive role
According to Baseball Savant, to analyze a catcher entirely, their performance is divided into three sections: Throwing, Blocking, and Framing (the art of a catcher receiving a pitch in a way that makes it more likely for an umpire to call it a strike). For each of these categories, there are stats that measure their overall performance compared to the average catchers in the MLB (CS above Average, Blocks above Average, and Catcher Framing Runs).
Before showing the chart, the selection of catchers was a mix between their offensive and defensive power. There are some categories where other catchers stood out more defensively but did not have a notable offensive performance (for example, in the Arm Strength category, Christian Bethancourt had the highest average with 85.4 mph, but he will not appear in these comparisons because he did not have a great ofensive perfomance).
An interesting fact is there are three Venezuelans on this list (Gabriel Moreno, Elias Diaz, Willson, and William Contreras).
In the chart below, we can see two categories. One is Stolen Base Attempts, which includes all attempts made towards second base. The next one is Caught Stealing, which represents the instances where the play ended in an out, and the catcher was part of the play. The Caught Stealing % is the percentage of effectiveness of the catcher(Caught Stealing / Stolen Base Attempts * 100).
Also have Caught Stealing Above Average (The number of extra caught stealings compared to the expectation of an average MLB catcher. Calculated by Caught Stealing - MLB Avg Caught Stealing), which will help us easily read the catcher's performance in the Throwing category.
As you can see in the chart, overall (summing up all the corresponding stats), Gabriel Moreno was the best, having 48% Caught Stealing%, being the most effective in the MLB in Throwing. However, the one with the most caught stealings was Cal Raleigh with 20, but an effectiveness of 29% Caught Stealing%.
In the case of William Contreras, he had a -1 in CS above average, placing him in the 41st position in the MLB. He is the only one in this group with a negative average, in other words, his performance was slightly below the average of MLB catchers.
In the second chart, we have: Arm Strength (measures the average speed of his throws in mph), Pop Time (represents the time elapsed from the moment the pitch hits the catcher's mitt to the moment the intended fielder is projected to receive his throw at the center of the base), and Exchange Time (The average of exchange times in seconds. Exchange is the time between the catcher receiving the pitch and releasing his throw).
In this chart, we can see more complementary stats, the ones highlighted in red are the best averages in each category.
In this third chart, we have Blocking stats (skill of catchers at preventing wild pitches (WP) or passed balls (PB)).
In an overall view, Sean Murphy was the best in Blocking in the MLB, with 16 Blocks Above Average and 31 Passed Balls + Wild Pitches (those are the pitches that couldn't be blocked or contained by the catcher).
In William Contreras' case, he made 7 Blocks Above Average and 32 PB + WP, ranking 9th in the MLB for the best performances in this category.
And finally, we have Framing stats (the art of a catcher receiving a pitch in a way that makes it more likely for an umpire to call it a strike). The best in the group in this category was Jonah Heim, with 10 Catcher Framing Runs and a strike percentage of 48.50%. In William Contreras' case, he ranked 7th in the MLB along with Sean Murphy.
William Contreras had his best offensive season, continuing the legacy that his brother Willson started in MLB. Defensively, he is a catcher who needs to improve his effectiveness in Steal Attempts and Pop Time. However, he excelled in Framing and Blocking, ranking among the best catchers in MLB.
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