William Contreras became the eighth catcher voted the World Series MVP after lifting the Milwaukee Brewers to their first World Series championship.
The heart and soul of the small-market Brewers, Contreras batted .381 while guiding Milwaukee's pitching staff and capitalizing on the first Series with the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system by winning 10 of 13 appeals. He had an RBI double during Milwaukee's clinching 4-1 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
“He posts every day," reliever Aaron Ashby said. "This team’s not what it is without this guy. He’s unbelievable.”
He joins Gene Tenace (1972), Johnny Bench (1976), Steve Yeager (co-winner in 1981), Darrell Porter (1982), Rick Dempsey (1983), Pat Borders (1992) and Salvador Perez (2015) as catchers to win the award.
At 28 a three-time All-Star, Contreras batted .270 with 18 homers and a career-best 94 RBIs as the Brewers won their fourth straight NL Central title.
He hit .444 with a pair of solo homers in the Division Series against San Diego, hitting a tiebreaking, seventh-inning drive in Game 1 and another homer in Game 3. He batted .357 with one homer and three RBIs in the Championship Series sweep of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Contreras was on Venezuela’s team that won its first World Baseball Classic, though he was 0 for 13 with no RBIs.
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