Willson Contreras still has plenty of years left to give to the game he loves so much. He joins the ranks of players like Alexander Ovechkin, who left his home country to come to the United States to reach the top level of baseball. Willson is a professional baseball player from Venezuela who has proven to be a catcher for the Chicago Cubs. He’s been with the Cubs since 2009, but after a few years in the minor leagues, he was finally called up to the Cubs team in 2016 and many would say he gave it a shot.
Biography, age of Willson Contreras
The baseball catcher was born Willson Eduardo Contreras in Puerto Cabello, Carabobo, Venezuela on May 13, 1992.
Contreras did not join the Cubs through the conventional MLB draft. He was introduced to the franchise books as a free agent from his home country of Venezuela. After the Cubs signed him in 2009, he moved to the Dominican Republic where he would begin his professional career. He joined the Dominican Summer League Cubans, an affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, in the rookie league, and recorded a .205 batting average in 29 games that same year. He was only 17 at the time.
The following year, Willson Contreras hit .313 batting averages in 17 games. He then joined the Boise Hawks, where he spent the 2011 and 2012 seasons. In 2013, Willson played for the Kane County Cougars, Daytona Cubs in 2014, and Tennessee Smokies in 2015. batting high and eight homers in 2015, he won the Cubs Minor League Player of the Year.. He was also ranked No. 57 on Baseball Prospectus ‘ list of top 10 prospects compiled ahead of the 2016 campaign.
His time in the minor leagues saw him play in a variety of positions: first to third base, and right and left field. At the end of the 2015 season, he was named to the Chicago Cubs 40 roster.
Two days after his promotion to the Cubs’ major league team, Willson scored home twice in his first game at bat, after being put out by the pitcher at first base. This success made him the 30th player in MLB history. He continued to switch positions throughout the season, establishing himself as a versatile player. At the end of his first major league regular season, Contreras recorded 12 homers, 35 RBIs, a .275 batting average and 80 hits in 29at-bats.
In a game against the San Francisco Giants in the 2016 National League Division Series, Willson’s two-run single in the ninth inning sent Chicago into the National League Championship Series. Also that same year, the Cubs won the 2016 World Series in a final game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. It was their first league title in 108 years.
For the 2017 season, Contreras was on the team for the opening day game where he played as a catcher against the St. Louis Cardinals. He hit a string of home runs during the first week of August 2017, recording 5 home runs in 6 games, earning National League Player of the Week honors. Unfortunately, he suffered a hamstring injury the following day and was sidelined until his return on September 10, 2017 as a pinch hitter.
Five days later, he received a match suspension for indirectly hitting referee Jordan Baker with his mask. He finished the 2017 season with a .276 batting average, 104 hits, 21 innings, 74 RBIs and 5 of 377 stolen bases. In the playoffs, Willson homered 491 feet, the longest record since the playoffs since 2015.
The family of Willson Contreras: parents, siblings, wife
As Willson does his thing and pushes through the MLB ranks, he constantly keeps tabs on his parents, William and Olga, who cheer him on from his home in Venezuela. The catcher has a younger brother, William, who plays for the Atlanta Braves.
Contreras was dating a woman named Andrea Villamizar for a while. However, the catcher popped the question on Valentine’s Day in 2018, and on May 3, 2018, the couple got married at City Hall in downtown Chicago. Some of his teammates and his parents went to the wedding.
The height of Willson Contreras and other facts
- The Chicago Cubs wide receiver stands at a height of 1.85 meters, which is 6.06 feet.
- Williams talks about the dangerousness of Venezuela’s parents fearing they’ll become targets for money-chasing criminals who want to get rich quick at the expense of the parents of a big-name athlete. His fears led him to buy a house for them in a safe and secure neighborhood while they worked on getting visas for them.
- Willson’s marriage may have been more elaborate, but for the circumstances. The wedding was scheduled to take place outside of the day, as the rest of his teammates prepared for a three-game series against the St. Louis Cardinals. Willson made sure he had the wedding before his parents who were in the United States at the time had to return to Venezuela. Her manager, Joe Maddon, said the next day that he didn’t even know Willson had married.