Chicago Cubs are getting the best version of Willson Contreras this year

After turning in the worst season of his young professional career, Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras is playing like a man possessed in 2019.

This spring, Willson Contreras owned mistakes and accepted responsibility for his dismal performance in the second half of the 2018 campaign. He earned his first All-Star selection with a scorching first half, then went ice-cold along with most of his Chicago Cubs teammates, leaving a gaping hole in the club’s lineup.

In the second half, he put up just a .585 OPS – a far cry from his first-half .818 mark. Really, the last month of the season is when he was at his worst, hitting .152 with just 10 hits in 22 games. His disappointment largely mirrored that felt by the team, as a whole, after the Cubs saw their shot at a third-straight NL Central crown fade away in the final weeks.

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But Contreras is putting 2018 behind him in a big way. The Chicago backstop crushed a pair of home runs on Wednesday against the rival White Sox, including a first-inning grand slam off early AL Cy Young candidate Lucas Giolito. To top things off, the blasts came on the three-year anniversary of his Major League debut, in which he homered, as well.

“It makes me proud to look back and see how far I have come,” Contreras told MLB.com, “and how good this team is to me.”

On the year, Contreras leads all Cubs hitters with a .954 OPS – a mark that ranks ninth in the National League. He’s one of five Chicago players with at least 15 home runs and seems likely to shatter his previous personal best of 21 long-balls, set during the 2017 campaign.

On Wednesday at Wrigley Field, Contreras did more than just rip a pair of homers. He threw out Tim Anderson, who already has 15 stolen bases on the year, at third in the fifth, as well. On the year, he’s caught 39 percent of would-be base stealers, well above the league-average mark of 27 percent.

Ever since he burst onto the big league scene during the Cubs’ 2016 World Series run, Willson Contreras has been capable of changing the game in countless ways. Sure, he’s one of the best-hitting catchers in all of baseball (he enters Thursday leading all Major League catchers in OPS) and has an absolute cannon behind the plate, but his abilities run much deeper than that.

This is a guy who’s been entrusted with handling one of the most veteran starting rotations in all of baseball. Keep in mind, he replaced David Ross as Jon Lester‘s personal catcher – helping guide the crafty left-hander to 31 wins and a 3.83 ERA over the last two years – and has ignited the club on countless instances with his boundless energy and enthusiasm.

“You could tell last year he was going through some learning,” Lester said after Wednesday’s win, “of how to catch every day and be at the big league level and perform and put up what we all know Willy can do. And this year he’s doing it again. I think he’s just learned how to manage his body and manage his time behind the plate. And we’re seeing that on the offensive side, which is awesome for us.”

Everyone talks about what guys like Javier Baez, Anthony Rizzo and Kris Bryant bring to the table – and with good reason. But on the heels of what can only be called a disappointing finish to 2018, Contreras is doing everything in his power to lead the Chicago Cubs back to October with far more than a Wild Card appearance on his mind.