Willson Contreras has played in 121 career regular-season games against the Milwaukee Brewers, by dint of spending the bulk of his career in the NL Central. In 23 of those games, he has been hit by a pitch, including once when he was plunked twice. No other team has hit him more than 14 times, and the Brewers account for more than one-sixth of the 131 total plunkings he's absorbed across his 11 seasons. It's a lot.
The latest instance came Monday night in Boston. Contreras, now on the Red Sox, came to the plate in the third inning with his team up a run. The first pitch from Brewers starter Brandon Woodruff, a 93-mph sinker, ran up and in and scraped Contreras's knuckles. The contact was slight enough that Brewers manager Pat Murphy asked for a video review, but a baseball to the fingers does not feel great, and Contreras was pissed. He shouted at Woodruff and stomped angrily to first; after the review, he continued woofing until an umpire and a Red Sox coach convinced him to chill. These two will probably not ever be friends: Woodruff and Contreras have faced each other 29 times, and six of those plate appearances have now ended with an HBP.
As a hitter, Contreras is vulnerable at the top of the zone and on the inside third of the plate, per Statcast. By whiff percentage, barrel percentage, expected batting average, expected on-base percentage, and by the all-encompassing xwOBA, the numbers say to pitch Contreras inside, and to pitch him up. Somewhat counterintuitively, last season Contreras saw vastly more pitches down and away (622, including balls off the plate) than he did up and in (290). Most of this has to do with righty breaking pitches swerving away from righty hitters, but it's also true that pitching inside is difficult (old-timers love to gripe that pitchers today don't know how to throw inside) precisely because missing too far to the arm side means risking a hit batter. In any case, the tricky thing with a hitter like Contreras is you do have to try to pitch him inside. Alex Bregman, another righty slugger who was a rookie in 2016, has been hit by a pitch just 67 times in his career, despite compiling more than 1,000 more career plate appearances than Contreras. Not coincidentally, Bregman doesn't have Contreras's conspicuous whiff troubles on stuff up in the zone and inside.
Then again, maybe the Brewers really just do not like Contreras. Certainly they will not feel any more fondly toward him today than they did yesterday. Two pitches after the plunking, Red Sox outfielder Wilyer Abreu slapped a grounder up the middle, and Brewers second baseman Brice Turang flipped the ball to shortstop David Hamilton, hoping to trigger a double play. Contreras came in hard, slid late, and kept his spikes up, arriving with enough force to tear Hamilton's pants and catch his leg. Contreras continued to shout from the dugout while trainers looked at Hamilton's leg. Hamilton, who made his major-league debut with Boston in 2023 and was with the Red Sox for three seasons, was able to stay in the game. The Brewers eventually prevailed, 8–6.
Contreras promises more retribution, and escalating consequences, if the Brewers continue to throw at him. "Next time they hit me again, I'm going to take one of them out," he said after the game. "That's a message."
"I mean, we've seen that skit for the last 10 years," said longtime Brewer Christian Yelich afterward. "It's nothing new." Woodruff also perceived this as just a continuation of stuff Contreras does to fire himself up. But Brewers pitchers are in a somewhat complicated position: They really ought to pitch Contreras up and in, not only because he whiffs there but because he mashes elsewhere. They cannot let his temper and threats of violence dictate where they throw the ball. On the other hand, it authentically sucks to get hit by a baseball, and you do not need gamesmanship as an excuse for scowling and yelling when a particular team hits you with a thrown ball in a sizable number of the games you play together. Even if the Brewers aren't hitting Contreras on purpose, they can't indefinitely fall back on the excuse that he sucks at hitting balls thrown near his neck. Anyone in that position would be pissed.
William Contreras, who is Milwaukee's catcher, made an effort to calm his older brother down immediately after Monday's plunking, as Willson stalked up the basepath. It proved futile. "He plays like that," William said. The teams have two more games this week before heading their separate ways, and then will not play again in the regular season. Maybe more of the Red Sox should try being super red-assed: Willson got on base five times yesterday and socked a solo dinger, but Boston's loss was their third straight, leaving their record at 2–8, the worst in the majors.
