ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Venezuela's flag draped around him, flashing a wide smile and filled with pride, William Contreras was willing to boast.
“I don’t want to offend any of the other catchers in the league. The last thing I want to do is offend any of them,” he said, speaking through a translator. “But sitting up here today, champion of the world, I feel like I’m the best catcher in the league. Again, that’s no disrespect to any of them. That’s the last thing I want to do. But today I feel like I’m the best catcher in the world.”
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Contreras became the eighth catcher voted the World Series MVP after lifting the Milwaukee Brewers to their first World Series championship.
Leader of the small-market Brewers, the 28-year-old hit .381 while guiding his pitching staff, throwing out four attempted base stealers and winning 10 of 13 appeals in the first Series with the Automated Ball-Strike challenge system. He had a run-scoring double during Milwaukee's clinching 4-1 victory in Game 5 on Wednesday night.
“He's our pit bull. You don’t just walk up and pet him. There’s a chance you get nipped,” manager Pat Murphy said.
Moments after being awarded the MVP trophy, Contreras embraced his 34-year-old brother, Boston Red Sox first baseman Willson Contreras, a World Series champion with the 2016 Chicago Cubs.
“My brother is my role model. I don’t have a lot of friends. He’s my friend,” William Contreras said. “If I have something to ask somebody, I ask Willson.”
William teared up when asked about Venezuela, his home country. Contreras was on Venezuela’s team that won its first World Baseball Classic in March, though he was 0 for 13 with no RBIs.
He and teammates Jackson Chourio and Antonio Senzatela joined Americans Alex Bregman and Luke Gregerson of the 2017 Houston Astros in winning the WBC and World Series in the same year.
“It means everything because that’s the first time Venezuela guys win the WBC and the World Series," William Contreras said. "It’s history, history for my country. I love Venezuela. It’s my country.”
He joined 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.
A three-time All-Star, Contreras hit .270 with 18 homers and a career-best 94 RBIs as the Brewers won their fourth straight NL Central title.
“Think about what he’s achieved, and he’s disappointed his numbers aren’t better," Murphy said. "He’s disappointed that he isn’t Gold Glove.''
Contreras was best at leveraging baseball's new robot umpires, leading Major League Baseball with 185 challenges and 105 overturns during the regular season. He won 22 of 33 in the postseason.
“It’s not magic,” Contreras said. "I think it’s the experience of playing every day throughout the season."
He batted .444 with a pair of solo homers in the Division Series against San Diego, hitting a tiebreaking, seventh-inning drive in the opener 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.
Milwaukee had several worthy MVP candidates.
Cooper Pratt set a Series rookie record with six straight hits and tied Gil McDougald's rookie mark from 1951 with seven RBIs, including go-ahead hits in the final three games. Jackson Chourio was 11 for 24 (.458), the most hits by a player in a five-game World Series. Ace Jacob Misiorowski was 2-0 and allowed one run in 10 2/3 innings, and reliever Aaron Ashby pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings with a save and nine strikeouts.
“I told him before the game: You will be the MVP of the World Series,” Murphy said of Contreras. “People recognized what that kid did for us. There was no doubt in my mind. Yeah, he’s special.”
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