William Contreras’s value to Milwaukee is widening, even as the numbers dip

Milwaukee has long looked to William Contreras to set the tone. In 2024, the catcher delivered the kind of season teams build around, earning First Team All-MLB recognition and finishing fifth in National League MVP voting at age 26. Two years later, the “heart and soul” framing still fits, even as the on-base and overall offensive production has softened.

The contrast is visible in a simple measure: OPS+ dropped from 130 in 2024 to 111 in 2025 and 108 in 2026. Those figures do not suggest Contreras stopped being productive, but they do suggest a league-leading edge that was present in 2024 did not fully carry forward. The direction of the decline also arrived earlier than Brewers fans would typically expect from a player entering his prime.

There are several plausible explanations, and the question is less about whether Contreras is still “good” and more about why the offensive curve has changed. Reports surrounding the club have pointed to uncertainty: maybe health issues played a role, maybe they did not. Maybe workload mattered, maybe it did not. The core point is that the drop in OPS+ is real in the year-over-year comparison, regardless of the cause.

Milwaukee’s construction puts extra weight on catching, and Contreras’s profile has often been described as a stabilizing force. Even when offensive output declines, a catcher who handles staff communication, game-calling rhythm, and clubhouse tempo can still be a leverage point. In that sense, the phrase “carrying the Brewers” is not only about batting metrics, it is also about how the team functions around a veteran presence at the position.

The most important takeaway is that a catcher’s value is rarely confined to one standard statistic. OPS+ captures production relative to the league and park environment, but it does not directly measure durability through grind games, the ability to keep pitching staff confidence steady, or the intangible leadership that can affect day-to-day decisions. Milwaukee’s season planning, therefore, has to treat the catcher’s role as both a performance engine and a team anchor.

Looking ahead, the Brewers’ internal question is straightforward: does Contreras’s recent dip represent a temporary adjustment period, an underlying health or usage factor, or a longer-term shift in offensive profile? With OPS+ in the high teens lower than 2024 and still in productive territory, Milwaukee will likely want to see whether 2026 is a continuation of the downward trend or a plateau. For fans, that is the next test: whether the “Wild Bill” baseline returns closer to the level that made him a headline at age 26.