MILWAUKEE -- The Brewers are so hard to predict at the Trade Deadline that sometimes their own players are left scratching their heads. Like just this week, when general manager Matt Arnold sent an infield prospect to the Rays for catcher Danny Jansen while everybody else thought Milwaukee was focused on corner infielders and relievers.
Arnold has those items on his shopping list ahead of Thursday’s 5 p.m. CT Deadline, but he also thought there was an opportunity to bolster the backup catcher position and protect against injury. Lest primary catcher William Contreras be worried about that, Arnold made a point to find Contreras in the clubhouse late Monday night.
“Just so you know,” Arnold says he told Contreras, “you’re still the guy.”
“I know,” Contreras responded.
A fractured middle finger on his catching hand has hampered Contreras this season, but he still plays nearly every day and showed this week he can still make an impact, capping a productive series by hitting a pair of solo home runs in the Brewers’ 10-3 loss to the Cubs in front of a fourth straight sellout crowd at American Family Field on Wednesday afternoon.
The teams came into the series tied for the second-best record in the Majors and parted with the Brewers on top of the MLB standings at 64-44 and the two clubs square at 4-4 head-to-head, after Chicago avoided a sweep by beating Freddy Peralta to snap the right-hander’s streak of seven straight winning decisions.
The clubs have only one series remaining in the regular season. They have five potentially pivotal games scheduled over four days at Wrigley Field from Aug. 18-21, starting with a doubleheader.
“We’re here with one of the best records in the league, and very few people thought we would be sitting here with the record that we do have,” Contreras said. “I’m just very appreciative for the guys that we do have in here and for the effort guys are giving. This is what we’re going to continue to give for the rest of the season.”
Six weeks had passed since Contreras had last homered on June 14 against the Cardinals, but this week’s showing against the Cubs was more like it. He was 6-for-12 in the three games with a trio of extra base-hits, pushing an OPS that had fallen as low as .682 back up to .711. (For context, he had an .831 OPS last season on the way to a fifth-place finish in NL MVP Award balloting.)
This week’s surge is not because of any mechanical changes, Contreras said, or any altered approach. His finger still hurts, but he has learned to tolerate it better. He’s also continuing to pick his spots to go all-out on the bases, which sometimes backfires like it did in the sixth inning when Contreras was out at first despite an errant throw from Cubs third baseman Matt Shaw. Manager Pat Murphy said he is fine with Contreras doing that on hard-hit ground balls to shortstops and second basemen, but on in-between plays like this one, “You have to go harder. That can’t happen.”
“I’m not making a big deal about it, because I don’t want William to sprint down there every time, as much wear and tear [he has] on his body,” Murphy said. “You know the ones you sprint on and the ones you don’t.”
Said Contreras: “We’re coming off a really long inning there on defense. No one here really knows what it is to go through an inning like that on defense. I hit the ground ball and took off, and it’s a bad throw. It happened.”
Arnold, Murphy and Contreras have all said they do not expect Jansen’s arrival to impact Contreras’ pattern of playing time. Contreras has been the starting catcher (90 games) or designated hitter (12 games) for 102 of the Brewers’ 108 games so far.
“Jansen is a tremendous catcher, and I welcomed him as soon as he got in the door,” Contreras said. “But it’s going to be the same for me.”
Will the same be true for the rest of the roster on the other side of Thursday’s Trade Deadline? Arnold is open to adding more power if he can find a fit, and he would still like to fortify a bullpen that has been hard-worked. Left-hander Jared Koenig scuffled in the sixth inning on Wednesday in his 51st appearance, matching righty Abner Uribe’s team lead. Only four relievers in the Majors had been used more as of Wednesday afternoon.
To fill either of those needs, the Brewers could trade from their starting pitching surplus, whether that’s a veteran like pending free agents Nestor Cortes or Jose Quintana, a developing player like highly regarded 23-year-old Logan Henderson or a combination of both.
Adding to the anticipation, the Brewers are scheduled to lift off for their road trip at 5 p.m. CT, right at the Trade Deadline.
“There are probably some players expecting something, expecting if we’re going to get somebody, and I know players around the club who think they’re not going to be with us anymore,” Peralta said. “You never know what can happen.”