This story was excerpted from Adam McCalvy’s Brewers Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MILWAUKEE -- It might sound like a minor adjustment to a player’s pregame routine. But for someone as routine-oriented as Brewers All-Star catcher William Contreras, this is a big one.
An obsessive attendee of early batting practice on the field during his years with the Brewers, despite the extra wear and tear on a catcher from all of those swings, Contreras has agreed to move some of those sessions inside to the batting cage. The shift allows for more focus on impacting the baseball precisely with tee work or flips, or hitting “live” pitching on the Trajekt Arc pitching machine, without worrying about whether the baseball clears the fence.
“It’s a big change for me,” Contreras said. “I love to hit outside. But if they want me to do it, I’ll do it.”
One of the men who convinced Contreras of the merits of a change is Guillermo Martinez, who joined the Brewers’ staff over the offseason as one of three hitting coaches. Martinez was a Blue Jays hitting coach from 2017-24 before spending last season with the Cubs’ Double-A club.
He has been working with many of the Brewers’ Spanish-speaking hitters since coming to Milwaukee. Few like to hit more than Contreras.
“William has been outstanding,” Martinez said. “I told him, ‘I know you can hit. I know you’re going to have good numbers at the end of the year. I know you’re going to make your money. But what level of a hitter do you want to be? Do you want to be that guy who wins Silver Sluggers? Or do you want to be MVP?”
Contreras, who already has won two Silver Slugger Awards, didn’t hesitate.
He wants to be a league MVP.
“So what I said is, ‘I’m not teaching you to hit, I’m teaching you how to prepare,’” Martinez said. “William has always been a guy that hits a lot on the field, but the last three, four series, we started going one day on the field, two in the cage.
“I’ve seen this with real good hitters who want to hit for power because they’re strong: If you’re not disciplined, you can get away from the big picture. You want that tunnel vision.”
It’s easier to have tunnel vision for hitting, Martinez says, when the player isn’t focused on the flight of the baseball. Martinez found similar success with players like Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette in Toronto.
“Trust me, the first day he went in the cage to hit, I was like, ‘Please get a hit [in the game],’” Martinez said. “I get it. It’s his routine. But I tried to explain to him that you might be hitting the ball far, but you’re not hitting it precisely, you’re getting false feedback when you’re hitting out there compared to when you’re hitting in here [in the batting cage]. I explained that when we controlled the environment, it benefitted Vlad.”
So, Contreras agreed to compromise. He was out on the field for early BP on Friday, when the Brewers opened a homestand against Paul Skenes and the Pirates. On Saturday, if they stick to this new plan, he will do his work inside.
“I said, ‘Let’s try. Give me a week or two’” Martinez said. “And he’s been real good with it. You could see the change right away. Out there, you can get a little bit lost.”