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Willson Contreras had a breakout 2017 season, then he had a good first half in 2018, was voted into his first All-Star Game and then everything went downhill for him. He admitted this spring that he took his success for granted and didn’t put in all the work throughout 2018 that he needed to maintain his performance. Well, so far in 2019, no one can doubt his will to be the best catcher in MLB and although his pitch framing is still a work in progress right now Willson Contreras is the best hitting catcher and it’s not even close.
On Wednesday, Contreras got on base three more times, walking once, getting two hits, including his eighth home run of the season.
Contreras had seven home runs in the first half of 2018 and 10 all of last year. No one is benefiting more from Chili Davsi being fired than Contreras at this point.
Here’s where Contreras ranks among the eight catchers who start mostly every day so far this season.
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8 home runs: 1st
.301 average: 1st
.427 OBP: 1st
.663 slugging %: 1st
1.090 OPS: 1st
181 wRC+: 1st
.447 wOBA: 1st
14 BB: 1st
19 RBIs: 2nd
19 runs: 2nd
The league average of wRC+ is 100. So, that means Contreras is currently 81% better offensively than the average player. Yasmani Grandal has the second highest wRC+ among catchers, but he’s way behind Contreras at 128.
Willson Contreras is balling at the moment. Not only is he the best hitting catcher, he’s right up there among all hitters in MLB too.
Hell yeah, Willson!
