Cardinals Sign Catcher Willson Contreras

Cardinals Sign Catcher Willson Contreras

The Cardinals have found their Yadier Molina replacement. Hopefully, by the time Yady is ready to hang up the cleats, he will have taught Willson Contreras how to play some defense by then. That’s the hope anyway. Make no mistake about it, Contreras now gives the Cardinals one of the premier bats at the catcher position as St. Louis makes their first major strike of the offseason.

Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic was the first to report the news:

Cardinals closing in on free-agent catcher Willson Contreras, sources tell @TheAthletic.

— Ken Rosenthal (@Ken_Rosenthal) December 7, 2022

This has to be a hard pill to swallow for Cub fans. If you told them that Contreras was going to sign with the Cardinals after they failed to get anything for him other than a draft pick, I think you would have to consider that the worst case scenario. Hindsight is 20/20 but it truly made no sense for Chicago to not have dealt Contreras at the deadline when they had no chance to make the postseason.

Contreras, 30, is a premium bat at the catching position. The former Cub backstop recorded an OPS+ of 128 including 22 homers. On the season, Contreras was a 3.9 WAR player in 2022. It remains interesting to see how the Cardinals utilize Willson but it stands to reason that he will get more DH opportunities on days that Yadier Molina starts at catcher.

St. Louis Welcomes Goldschmidt to a Historic MVP Group

The Cubs haven’t been totally quiet this offseason reaching a deal with Cody Bellinger just yesterday. It remains to be seen what else Chicago does who have been rumored to be in on the shortstop market.

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