The Brewers and star catcher William Contreras avoided arbitration by agreeing to a one-year deal with a club option for the 2027 season, per a team announcement. The Octagon client will earn $9.4MM in 2026, and the 2027 option is valued at $14.5MM, per Jon Heyman of the New York Post. Contreras’ camp had filed for a $9.9MM salary. The team filed at $8.5MM.
Contreras wasn’t eligible for free agency until the 2027-28 offseason, so the option doesn’t give the Brewers any additional club control. It does provide some potential cost certainty, however, while ensuring that this deal to avoid arbitration can’t be used as a data point in future arbitration cases; one-year arrangements with option years are considered multi-year deals for arbitration purposes and thus aren’t eligible to be cited as comps (by the Brewers or other clubs).
If Milwaukee ends up declining that option, Contreras would still be under club control. He’d simply be arbitration-eligible again. The Brewers declined a $12MM club option on Contreras for the upcoming season back in November. The two parties went back to negotiations, exchanged figures, and narrowly avoided a hearing.
Contreras’ $9.4MM salary lands just above the $9.2MM midpoint between the figures exchanged by team and player. If he has a big season and projects for a salary in the $14-15MM range, that 2027 option may end up being exercised, but if not, he’ll likely find himself in a similar boat next winter.
The 2025 season was a solid one but still a down year by Contreras’ lofty standards. After slashing .283/.363/.472 in three seasons from 2022-24, he hit “just” .260/.355/.399 in 659 trips to the plate this past season. Health was a factor, to be sure; Contreras played through a fracture in his left middle finger for the majority of the season — an injury originally revealed in May but not addressed in full until he underwent surgery following the season. In that sense, suiting up for 150 games, including 128 behind the plate, and delivering above-average offense is an impressive feat in and of itself.
The 2026 season will be Contreras’ penultimate year of club control. He’ll head into the year with a cleaner bill of health and look to get back to that 2022-24 form as the Brewers defend their NL Central crown. The general expectation is that Milwaukee will be in the thick of the division race — or at least the Wild Card chase — once again this season, even after trading ace Freddy Peralta and 2025 breakout rookies Isaac Collins and Caleb Durbin.
If that doesn’t come to pass, Contreras could well see his name surface in trade rumors this summer. Milwaukee tends to listen to offers on its best players as those players approach free agency. Josh Hader was traded at the deadline in his own penultimate season with the Brew Crew. This offseason, Peralta joined Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams and others as the latest Brewers star to be traded as his control window waned. It’s likelier than not that Contreras will stick in Milwaukee through the current season, but his name will assuredly pop up on the rumor mill next offseason, regardless of what happens with that club option.
I wonder if they’ll pick up the option before they trade him next off-season.
Why? He’d remain under club control for whoever they could trade him to next year. The club option was only included as an arbitration data point tactic.
Derp!
Why would they trade him after this coming season??? He’s under team control till the end of the ‘27 season
See: Josh Hader, Corbin Burnes, Devin Williams, Freddy Peralta…
He’s a free agent after 27. They’re not likely to extend him. And they’re not likely to extend the Qualifying Offer. The QO amount for that season would probably make him one of the two highest paid catchers. So he walks and the team ends up with nothing.
An overlooked factor is Andrew Vaughn will also be entering his final arbitration season in ’27. If he has a good year ’26, I don’t see the team keeping them both. Contreras would likely have more trade value.
And cue the meltdowns
What OF you willing to part with? Idk if the Mets would take Frelick one for one with Vientos but it may be a good conversation starter
Milwaukee wants nothing to do with him. Why would they give up anything for someone like that?
Frelick has MORE value than Vientos, not less……
Lmfao Frelick is much more valuable than Vientos. And Mets fans call Yankees fans delusional 😂
Yankee fans are delusional. At least some of them. (Not you Judge99)
That 2027 option isn’t super expensive, especially if he puts up a good 2026 season.
Fangraphs had him worth $29mm last year with his busted finger. That ’27 option is pure gold.
I’m sorry he is the single most important person to extend and get locked up. No way they should let him get out the door. Woody will probably be gone and Yellich will 2 years closer to his contract ending.
Is he worth $20 M plus a season to a team like the Brewers? Or is it better to spread that money around to keep multiple players like Frelick and Turang and Priester and Misiorowski?
They will trade him
Reasonable chance they trade him like they have with most of their players as they near free agency. Quero and or Dinges better get ready.
He’s 100% gone at the deadline.
Not unless the team is completely out of it. Next off-season, different story.
Interesting how they constantly give him a contract for 2 years then never pick up the second year. If I recall it was a $1M buyout on his $12M option from last year. Not sure how teams play with the arb figures to hold salaries down if they include the buyout amounts or not. But the guy plays with a broken finger and deserves every buck he gets
His buyout was $100k, not $1M.
Right in the article. Do you read?
Holy smokes if you had asked me how long he has been in the league I would have said 10 years.
I say this with the utmost admiration, screw the Brewers.
Someone’s salty because their team is in a city no longer capable of supporting a major league team. Charlotte Pirates!
Pittsburgh is a significantly larger city than Milwaukee, it’s actually just a bit smaller than your example of Charlotte.
I am jealous that milwaukee has a better run team though.
If it’s significantly bigger, why don’t more of you buy tickets? I’m sure you’ll come back with some whining about the owner. But why should the owner spend on the team if you guys still won’t buy tickets? Last time the Pirates made the playoffs (third straight year making the playoffs), 15th in MLB. Less tickets sold than TWO teams that LOST over 90 games.
The Pirates had virtually identical attendance numbers to Milwaukee in 2015 and 2016…. but none of this proves that it’s bigger. Pittsburgh has a million more people n it’s metro than Milwaukee, and though neither are growing fast Pittsburgh is growing faster than Milwaukee.
Evidently it’s a shame your Front Office intelligence can’t extend to the fans 😉
Not making any comments about the sizes of the two cities. Maybe you should work on your reading comprehensive skills before you talk about the intelligence of others.
I’ll dumb it down for you. Pittsburgh has more people, they should sell more tickets. A team making it’s third straight playoff appearance should be selling more tickets than a team losing 90 plus games. It’s pretty simple.
Win or lose, Pittsburgh doesn’t support the Pirates. Time for the team to move to a city that will. If not Charlotte, Orlando. If not Orlando, Nashville. If not Nashville, there’s other cities lining up.
Pittsburgh was so bad for the 20 years before that 3 good year stretch only the hardcores were left. Obviously that long of a losing streak is going to make it hard to suddenly win fans back.
But, attendance almost doubled when they started winning. And Milwaukee sold virtually the same tickets when they won 97 games last year as they did when they lost 94 games in 2015.
Your FO is full of talented people and your fan base is pretty dependable because of it. Take the compliment and don’t be a manchild about it.
Your city is full of people that don’t deserve a major league team. Accept the truth.
How many World Series does your team have again? Five less than Pittsburgh? Lol
And Pittsburgh has less than the Yankees. Has ZERO to do with the city’s inability to adequately to support a team NOW. Don’t feel bad. Cities like Toledo and Akron used to be Major League cities but aren’t now. Time for Pittsburgh to join them.
Milwaukee last year winning 97 games sold virtually the same amount of tickets as the 2015-2016 Pirates. When the team wins, the fans show up.
The Pirates ain’t leaving Pittsburgh, lol. Milwaukee is closer in size to an Akron than to a Pittsburgh you know…
Pittsburgh metro area being 40% bigger than Milwaukee should mean that that winning team should have sold 40% more tickets than the Brewers, not equal. Unless the population of that metro area doesn’t care about the team, win or lose.
Thanks for more evidence proving that Pittsburgh is no longer capable of supporting a Major League team.
Okay manlet, I don’t know why you have an ax to grind lol. The Pirates ain’t leaving Pittsburgh.
Sign this guy to a long-term deal! What’s wrong with these Brewer management types?
Maybe they figure instead of having one of the highest paid catchers, they’ll spread that money around.
No way