Though they just won the World Series, the Milwaukee Brewers' offseason is sure to be complicated, especially with the trade rumors surrounding All-Star catcher William Contreras.

Contreras, 28, joined the Brewers in a three-team trade from the Atlanta Braves before the 2023 season and has been a great addition. The star catcher is a three-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger, and, most recently, won the 2026 World Series Most Valuable Player Award after leading Milwaukee to its first-ever championship. Contreras has been everything the Brewers wanted and more, slashing .270/.341/.417 with 18 home runs and 94 runs batted in.

Though Contreras is one of the league's best catchers, he has only one year of arbitration eligibility remaining before he becomes a free agent. Milwaukee has a history of trading away star players in the offseason, before they can hit free agency to maximize their value, as seen with Freddy Peralta, Corbin Burnes and Devin Williams.

The Brewers should not be willing to trade Contreras

Ideally, Milwaukee will keep Contreras. There's little to no chance the Brewers could find another catcher as talented as he is. Even so, when speaking with MLB.com's Anthony Castrovince on Wednesday, Brewers general manager Matt Arnold didn't shut down the rumors when asked about the speculation of trading Contreras this offseason.

"I'm sure we'll get this a lot, but he means a lot to our team," Arnold said on Wednesday in a post shared on X by Castrovince.

That's all Arnold had to say about the Contreras situation, surprisingly. Milwaukee picked up Contreras' $15.5 million option for next season, which was expected, but it's still up in the air whether the team will extend him or trade him. Some insiders, like MLB Network's Jon Morosi, believe Contreras will stay in a Brewers uniform despite the noise.

"I still believe it is a likelihood, it's better than 50-50 I believe, that Contreras is in a Brewers uniform to begin 2027," Morosi said. "We talked before about the problematic nature of moving a one-year player in the current labor environment. It's just more complicated than usual. ... I still think it is more likely than not that Contreras is a Brewer [in 2027], but we must keep a little daylight on the possibility."

There's a long postseason ahead, and chatter about Contreras will surely persist until a decision is made one way or another. It's good that some insiders believe the Brewers will keep the star catcher, but Arnold could have squashed any trade speculation right now if he wanted to.