The Milwaukee Brewers have finally landed that elusive front-line catcher they’ve been seeking.
As part of a three-team trade, the Brewers acquired William Contreras, a first-time all-star this past season, from the Atlanta Braves as well as minor-league reliever Justin Yeager on Monday.
Also coming to Milwaukee is right-handed reliever Joel Payamps, via the Oakland A’s.
In exchange for those three players, the Brewers sent outfielder Esteury Ruiz – one of two prospects acquired in August in the Josh Hader trade – to the A’s.
In addition, Oakland sent catcher Sean Murphy to Atlanta for catcher Manny Piña and three pitching prospects in right-handers Freddy Tarnok and Royber Salinas and left-hander Kyle Muller.
“We’re excited about what we were able to accomplish today for the team,” general manager Matt Arnold said. “These three-team deals are complicated and take a lot of time but when everybody signs off, it’s a pretty good feeling to get it done.”
Contreras, who turns 25 on Dec. 24, hit .278 with 20 home runs and 45 runs batted in with an OPS of .860 in 97 games in 2022. He made 89 starts in all – 57 at catcher, 31 at designated hitter and one in left field.
He split time behind the plate with Travis d’Arnaud while Piña missed most of the season with an injury.
Contreras started the All-Star Game as the designated hitter for the National League and over his final 48 games, he hit .304 with nine homers and 22 RBI.
With the Brewers, he’ll become the primary backstop with Victor Caratini the backup. The team also has Payton Henry and Mario Feliciano on the 40-man roster and another catcher with limited major-league experience in the system in Alex Jackson.
Defensively, Contreras could use some polishing up. But the Brewers have had great success in coaching catchers up in recent years so there’s no reason to believe they won’t be able to do the same in this case.
“Certainly, losing Omar Narváez is a big loss for us and we feel good about having Victor Caratini in our mix,” Arnold said. “We feel good about being able to add Payton Henry back to the organization recently, but if we were able to add another guy, especially with the pedigree of somebody like William Contreras, that was something we were very open to doing and something we had our eye on trying to accomplish over the last couple months.
“So once he became a possibility, it was something we really tried to narrow down and ultimately, we were able to come together (on a deal).”
Offensively, he figures to be a terrific fit as a right-handed bat with pop in the middle of the lineup. He hit .354 with a 1.036 OPS against left-handed pitching this past season, an area of huge need for Milwaukee.
“With what he’s been able to accomplish offensively, he brings a solid middle-of-the-order bat particularly against left-handed pitching, as we’ve seen,” Arnold said. “Obviously, having William here at his age gives us additional flexibility to explore other things and that’s important to us.
“We value flexibility, roster flexibility, positional flexibility, so just the opportunity to remain flexible with our roster is something we value quite a bit here as well.”
Making Contreras an even better fit from the Brewers’ perspective is the fact he’s is under team control through 2027.
“That’s a big part of this,” Arnold said. “He’s somebody who’s not a rental, (that) we think has a chance to be here and be a Brewer for a long time. Just having those kind of ingredients, we’ve talked a lot about the exciting young ballclub we’re trying to put together here and we feel like he can certainly be a part of that — especially already having been an all-star at a very young age.”
Contreras is the younger brother of St. Louis Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras, the longtime Chicago Cub who has had several run-ins with the Brewers in recent seasons.
“Obviously, we’ve seen a lot of his brother over the years,” Arnold said. “So it’ll be exciting to see the two of them in the same division for the next several years.”
Payamps, who turns 29 on April 7, was 3-6 with a 3.23 earned run average and WHIP of 1.37 in 41 appearances with the Kansas City Royals and Oakland in 2022. He also struck out 41 in 55⅔ innings.
In 82 career appearances with Arizona, Toronto, Kansas City and Oakland, Payamps has posted a 3.35 ERA and WHIP of 1.29 with 84 strikeouts in 113 innings.
And like Contreras, he’s under team control through 2027.
“Payamps is a guy we’ve had our eye on for a couple of years and when he was over in Oakland,” said Arnold. “When he became available, we thought he was a really good arm who could fit into our mix in the major leagues immediately. He has really good ingredients, multiple pitches. He’s been a starter in the past (119 in the minor leagues, one in the majors in 2021) so he can go multiple innings if needed.
“Just fits a lot of ways on our roster today, so we feel really good about adding that arm to our major-league mix.”
The right-handed Yeager, who turns 25 on Jan. 20, was a 33rd-round pick of the Braves in 2019. He went 1-0 with a 3.10 ERA and WHIP of 1.17 in 41 appearances between advanced Class A and Class AA this past season while striking out 81 in 52⅓ innings.
“Justin Yeager’s a guy with high upside and electric stuff,” said Arnold. “We feel good about him. Our scouts did a really good job identifying this guy. Being able to add two arms to our organization is something we feel good about.”
The 23-year-old Ruiz, who was the Brewers’ 10th overall prospect according to the Journal Sentinel, is coming off a career season in which he led all levels of the minor leagues with 85 stolen bases. He played three games for Milwaukee in September.
But with the amount of young talent Milwaukee has already amassed in the outfield, he quickly became an expendable piece.
“Obviously, losing somebody like Esteury Ruiz is tough,” Arnold said. “As you guys know, we certainly value athleticism and that type of player but at the same time, we feel like we were able to convert that athlete into another athlete in William Contreras who also fits our team exceptionally well.
“We’re excited.”
Our subscribers make this reporting possible. Please consider supporting local journalism by subscribing to the Journal Sentinel at jsonline.com/deal.
DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get the latest news, sports and more
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Brewers obtain catcher William Contreras, 2 pitchers in 3-team trade