One week ago, Joseph Contreras was facing high school batters as a member of Blessed Trinity Catholic High School in Georgia.
On Friday, the 17-year-old was facing Aaron Judge as a member of the Brazilian national team. And Bryce Harper. And Bobby Witt Jr., Kyle Schwarber and Cal Raleigh.
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That’s the kind of stuff you get in the World Baseball Classic.
One of the breakout stars of Team USA’s opening 15-5 win over Brazil was the second pitcher out of the bullpen for the underdogs. Contreras is the son of longtime MLB pitcher José Contreras, and was pitching on the same Daikin Park field where his father once celebrated a win in the 2005 World Series. He’s also the younger player on any of the 20 WBC rosters, having been born on May 6, 2008.
With his father in attendance, he got called in for the second inning against an American lineup that posted two runs on a Judge homer against starting pitcher off Bo Takahashi. He got into trouble early, allowing a double to Brice Turang then walking both Witt and Harper.
That set up a situation in which an actual minor was being asked to face Judge, the reigning American League MVP, with the bases loaded and one out. Throwing a fastball averaging 96.6 mph, Contreras induced a broken-bat grounder from Judge, leading to an inning-ending double play.
The encounter left Judge impressed, as he told reporters after the game:
“I know I wasn’t doing that at 17 years old, that’s for sure. Just great stuff. I felt like he had some poise on the mound, he’s throwing up to 100 mph, he’s facing Team USA, a lot of guys he’s probably seen on TV. It was just impressive. Impressive to see him control himself out there, get out of a big jam.”
Contreras was asked to go back out for the third inning, which didn’t go as well. He allowed a single to Schwarber, allowed a run to score on a wild pitch, then walked Raleigh. That was the end of the night for him, with Brazil manager Yuichi Matsumoto pulling him for Tiago De Silva.
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Control ultimately wasn’t on Contreras’ side, as he threw only 13 strikes on 33 total pitches. Fortunately, he still has plenty of career ahead of him to iron things out.
Contreras, whose mother is Brazilian, is committed to play college baseball at Vanderbilt and is ranked as MLB Pipeline’s No. 47 prospect in the 2026 MLB Draft. Speaking with local media in one interview before the tournament, he mentioned one hope:
“Maybe face Aaron Judge. That would be nice.”
Nice indeed.
Amazingly, Contreras wasn’t even the only son of a major-leaguer too young to drink who had an impressive showing for Brazil. Lucas Ramirez — you might remember his father, Manny — had two home runs in the game, more than the entirety of Team USA combined.
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