William

Contreras

Contreras won’t be heading to free agency since he remains arbitration-eligible for two additional seasons before reaching the open market in 2028. The 27-year-old backstop played through a fractured left middle finger for most of this past season, which clearly impacted his production at the dish, as he finished with an underwhelming .260/.355/.399 slash line with 17 homers and six steals in 150 games. He recently underwent surgery to address the finger on his glove hand and should be cleared to resume baseball activities at some point in December. He’ll be a top five catcher off the board in all fantasy drafts next spring.

Contreras fractured the finger in May and then played through it the rest of the way. A picture the catcher posted in September revealed that the finger still looked anything but normal, so surgery to allow him to play at 100 percent next year might be an option.

Brewers manager Pat Murphy is going to shake things up when they face Dodgers ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto after his club was limited to just one run on two hits by Dodgers starter Blake Snell in Monday’s series opener. Bauers came off the bench to deliver a ground-rule double in the ninth inning against high-leverage reliever Roki Sasaki and will draw his second start of the postseason in this one. Here’s the full lineup: Jackson Chourio (RF), Brice Turang (2B), William Contreras (C), Christian Yelich (DH), Andrew Vaughn (1B), Sal Frelick (CF), Caleb Durbin (3B), Bauers (LF) and Joey Ortiz (SS).

Chourio gets the nod in the leadoff spot over veteran Christian Yelich as Milwaukee’s top-of-the-order table-setter to face Dodgers lefty ace Blake Snell to kick off the extended best-of-seven series at American Family Field. The 21-year-old franchise cornerstone told reporters his right hamstring is feeling close to full strength again after aggravating the issue during last week’s NLDS opener against the Cubs. Here’s the full lineup: Chourio (RF), Christian Yelich (DH), William Contreras (C), Brice Turang (2B), Andrew Vaughn (1B), Sal Frelick (CF), Caleb Durbin (3B), Isaac Collins (LF) and Joey Ortiz (SS).

Contreras homered off Drew Pomeranz in the first, Andrew Vaughn took Colin Rea deep in the fourth and Brice Turang got to Andrew Kittredge in the seventh. The Cubs’ lone run also came on a homer from Seiya Suzuki in the second. For Contreras and Vaughn, it was their second homers in the five-game NLDS. The Brewers will now host the Dodgers in the NLCS, which begins Monday.

Chourio remains in Milwaukee’s lineup for Thursday night’s potential series-clinching contest at Wrigley Field despite battling a lingering right hamstring issue that hasn’t adversely impacted his availability throughout the best-of-five series. Blake Perkins is back in center field over Brandon Lockridge with Andrew Vaughn at first base over Jake Bauers to face Cubs veteran lefty Matthew Boyd: Here’s the full lineup: Christian Yelich (DH), Chourio (LF), William Contreras (C), Brice Turang (2B), Vaughn (1B), Caleb Durbin (3B), Sal Frelick (RF), Perkins (CF) and Joey Ortiz (SS).

Contreras is good to go after missing a handful of games at the conclusion of the regular season with a lingering left hand issue. The other notable development for Milwaukee is manager Pat Murphy sticking with lefties Brice Turang and Christian Yelich near the top of the order with southpaw Matthew Boyd taking the ball for Chicago in this one. Here’s the full lineup: Jackson Chourio (LF), Turang (2B), Contreras (C), Yelich (DH), Andrew Vaughn (1B), Sal Frelick (RF), Caleb Durbin (3B), Blake Perkins (CF) and Joey Ortiz (SS).

Contreras sat out the final two games of the season with pain in his glove hand, which is the same hand where he has been playing through a fractured middle finger. Still, even if performance dips, he will be on the field in the NLDS. “No matter what the analysis is on that injury, he’s going to play,” said Murphy.

Contreras gets a well-earned break for the second straight game to close out the regular season after playing through a left finger injury for most of the year. It’ll be Danny Jansen handling the catching duties in this one.

Contreras has been in a bit of a funk at the plate over the past week, so the Brewers will give him a night off to reset and clear his head. Danny Jansen will start behind the dish and will bat eighth for the Brewers against Reds’ left-hander Andrew Abbott on Saturday.