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.
