Why Willson Contreras is going to let the big dog eat this year for St. Louis
Year Two will be a very good one for the Cardinals' catcher.
2023 started off as well as Willson Contreras as Super Bowl 48 started for Peyton Manning: shitty with a side of more shitty. Before April could age, he had been thrown under the bus by one of his starting pitchers-ahem, Jack “small violin” Flaherty, and relieved of his starting catching duties.
Imagine that for a second. You sign a five-year contract with the rival of your former team, hoping to pick up the pieces in the wake of catching legend Yadier Molina’s retirement--and then all of that happens. Contreras returned to the position shortly afterwards, but that kind of damage to one’s mentality doesn’t lift after a week or so.
However, the player didn’t let that whine machine play on, and cut into the fabric of the regular season. Heck, if anyone played with more fire than Contreras down the stretch of a horrid season, please point them out. He never let up, and his stats back the passion up. The man who nearly broke a cooler in half turned that early season rage into an end of year stat line where he slashed .264/.358/.467 and 124 OPS+. The .826 OPS was his highest since 2019.
Fangraphs may tell you that his 2.4 WAR was lower than 2022, but the wRC+ only dropped from 132 to 127. Those are both well above average. Contreras heated up as the season carried on, his bat matching the St. Louis temps. Check out his month by month OPS finishes: .762, .555, .724, 1.282, .827, 1.214. His second half OPS was .200 more than the first half, meaning once the mechanism was cleared from his brain the bat followed suit.
In all honesty, he could slash that 2023 line for 2024 and 2025, and no one should quiver. He’s averaging $18.5 million per season. Pump up the home runs and start a little hotter, and all will be fine. While I’m sure Contreras’s thoughts on the matter contrast my own, he doesn’t need to be an MVP to make this contract stick. The passion and respect he shows every day not only for the game but for the franchise should fill in hopefully a long relationship.
Contreras was hired to hit, and he did that well last season. An uptick isn’t exactly dreamy. Remember how Matt Holliday produced once he found comfort in a new setting. Like with the former outfielder, expecting the defense to vastly improve or leap a few bounds would be futile. His catching has long been rated and considered average, which is fine if it runs with a thumping bat. Now that he’s settled in and found an ability to reach base and clear them, the stage should be set for the big dog to eat in 2024.
There’ll be no Jack Flaherty to whine. Oliver Marmol can avoid another media gaffe by embracing and protecting his catcher instead of letting the media draw their own views. Along with the Tyler O’Neill public mess, the manager didn’t handle the Contreras benching matter correctly--unless there was a hand firmly planted up his ass.
Contreras doesn’t need the publicity; his bat and heart do enough damage. He doesn’t need to be Yadier Molina either; just be a productive player and St. Louis will love you. By the looks of this month’s Winter Warm-up, he is already becoming a fan favorite. Easy to smile and hungry to get better, he knows the Cardinals are all about.
Whether that’s competing for a wildcard spot or a World Series is above Contreras’s pay grade. Bashing the crap out of the baseball is well within his grasp.