MILWAUKEE -- Brewers catcher William Contreras will continue to play despite a fractured finger on his catching hand that had grown so painful that the club ordered an X-ray in the wake of Tuesday’s win over the Astros at American Family Field.
The test confirmed the existence of a fracture on his left middle finger, but it’s believed to be an old injury that dates to last season, when Contreras played in 155 games, caught in 120 of them, won a Silver Slugger Award and finished fifth in NL MVP Award balloting. This year, like last year, he’s told the club he wants to play through the pain rather than miss time.
Contreras was not in the lineup for Wednesday’s 9-1 loss, when the Brewers were also missing right fielder Sal Frelick, who is day to day with a swollen left knee, and second baseman Brice Turang, who started sporadically during the 3-3 homestand because he’s been fighting an illness. For Contreras, that was standard operating procedure for a 12:10 p.m. CT series finale against the Astros after he caught all nine innings each of the previous two nights. He and the Brewers were working to develop a splint for that finger to absorb some of the impact he absorbs on a daily basis while catching and hitting.
“They’re doing all sorts of things to put things in his glove, and he had the finger injected, so that should calm down,” manager Pat Murphy said. “Now we have to do something, [because] when he swings the bat, it’s just so painful for him. We’re working that out.
“But we fully anticipate full-go for those three guys on Friday if everything goes according to plan.”
The Brewers are off Thursday, offering everyone a break before the team opens a weeklong road trip on Friday night against the Rays in Tampa.
The pain is said to be most acute while Contreras is hitting, which could be one factor in his .331 slugging percentage through his first 35 games (compared to .466 last year). But it also occasionally manifests while catching when the baseball pops out of Contreras’ glove, as it did on a called third strike against Astros leadoff man Jeremy Peña to open Tuesday's game.
Eric Haase is a capable backup catcher for the Brewers who owns a .929 OPS after hitting a fifth-inning solo home run in a losing effort on Wednesday. That came after Haase had a tough inning in the field in the top of that same inning -- he was slow to get a tag down on a play at the plate, then was charged with a run-scoring passed ball -- as Brewers defenders made a series of mistakes to derail starter Quinn Priester. After the Astros pulled away from reliever Elvin Rodriguez, it led to Milwaukee’s seventh loss this season by at least eight runs.
“The kid [Priester] pitched really well and we didn’t help him at all,” Murphy said. “Again, we’ve kind of misplaced our edge on a day-to-day basis.”
Losing Contreras, even for a day or two, compounds that problem. Besides Haase, the Brewers have veteran catcher Jorge Alfaro at Triple-A Nashville and their top prospect, Jeferson Quero, is a catcher, although he’s still rehabbing after losing last season to right shoulder surgery and then suffering a hamstring injury just as the 2025 season was set to begin.
But there’s no replacing Contreras, who has developed into one of baseball’s best all-around catchers since coming to Milwaukee from the Braves via a three-team trade between Milwaukee, Atlanta and the A’s in December 2022. In each of the past two seasons, Contreras has been voted the Brewers’ most valuable player.
He’s also arguably their toughest player.
“I think I remember ‘Moose’ [Mike Moustakas] playing with a broken finger,” said longtime Brewer Christian Yelich. “Everybody is out there playing with something, but a broken finger is pretty extreme. He’s played through a lot of stuff before, blown-up fingers and all of that. If anyone can do it, it’s him.”
Is there any thought to a stint on the 10-day injured list to let Contreras' finger calm down?
“I don’t think he’ll allow that, knowing him,” Murphy said. “But it really changes who he is as a player, because every time you [catch] a foul ball, it crushes you. And, too, it affects you swinging the bat.
“The doctors and training staff are working incessantly today to come up with a splint or come up with something that can protect that. The injection hopefully helps, too.”