Brewers Catcher William Contreras Named World Series MVP

William Contreras was named World Series MVP after the Milwaukee Brewers beat the Tampa Bay Rays 4-1 in Game 5 to win the series and capture the first championship in franchise history. The 28-year-old catcher went 1-for-4 with an RBI double in the clincher and finished the Series 8-for-21 (.381) with four RBIs. He did just as much behind the plate. Contreras guided a pitching staff that held Tampa Bay to 12 runs in five games, and he threw out four runners during the series.  He threw out three of them in the first three games, becoming the first catcher to do that since Phillies catcher Darren Daulton in 1993. Contreras was Milwaukee’s most consistent hitter all October, finishing the postseason with a .373/.448/.588 slash line to go with three homers and nine RBIs. He did it after a steady regular season in which he hit .270 with 18 homers, 94 RBIs and a .758 OPS in 147 games for a team that won a franchise-record 103 games. Contreras is the first catcher to win a World Series MVP since Pérez in 2015, and the third Venezuelan to win it, after Pérez and San Francisco’s Pablo Sandoval in 2012. In all eight catchers have won World Series MVP. As he celebrated on the field after the win, Contreras embraced his older brother, Willson Contreras, who plays for the Boston Red Sox and himself a World Series champion with the 2016 Chicago Cubs. Both the Contreras brothers also the World Baseball Classic for Venezuela in March, where he played four games. Salvador Pérez started the final at catcher, and Venezuela beat the United States 3-2 in Miami for its first WBC title. Two of William’s Brewers teammates – Jackson Chourio and Antonio Senzatela – also were part of the Venezuela team. Milwaukee went 11-2 in the postseason, including a sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Championship Series. The Brewers lost their only previous World Series, in seven games to St. Louis in 1982.