Of all the things that went wrong for the last-place Cardinals in 2023, give them some credit for owning up to and sounding determined to correct the most preventable mistake.
No, I’m not talking about coming clean about an overlooked understaffing of a starting rotation and the three free-agent additions made this offseason that will aim to stabilize things. Preventing the most preventable mistake would have been much easier than attempting to solve that issue. It wouldn’t have been solved by reversing time and adding more or different players. It could have been resolved by simply not mangling the debut season of the big free-agent addition the Cardinals actually did acquire.
I’m thinking Willson Contreras is about to have a big season, and I’m thinking some of you who don’t agree will be thinking it too after Contreras travels to ºüÀêÊÓƵ this weekend. Move over, Billy Joel and Sting. The Contreras Redemption Tour is coming to Busch Stadium in 2024. First stop? His Monday appearance at Cardinals Winter Warm-up.
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Contreras winced a little bit — who wouldn’t? — as the debut season of his five-year deal was walloped by blame-game shade from an underperforming pitching staff in addition to a quickly scrapped theory that floated the idea of him spending a significant amount of time in the outfield. What he never did was throw any of his new teammates (or manager or front office) under the bus. He didn’t demand a trade. He didn’t pout. He simply stated his intention of trying to keep the job that is his identity, the one the Cardinals believed in enough to trust him to put his own stamp on a position previously occupied by Cardinals legend and future Hall of Famer Yadier Molina.
Contreras kept working. He earned respect. Oh, and he put up numbers on offense that were better in multiple areas than he posted during an All-Star 2022 season with the Cubs.
Despite all of the unnecessary baggage, Contreras lifted his average (.243 to .264) and improved his on-base percentage (.349 to .358) while keeping his slugging percentage (.467) steady. He finished fourth among Cardinals in homers (20) and second in doubles (27). It too often got overlooked, but Contreras after the All-Star break averaged .309 with a .402 on-base percentage and a .557 slugging percentage over his final 150 at-bats.
He’s not Molina behind the plate, mostly because no one is, but now he’s surrounded with a pitching staff that will take ownership instead of dump blame on the catcher. That, and he’s had even more time and practice working within the Cardinals’ preferred way of game-planning and pitch-calling. He’s always been open to learning and even cited it as one of the reasons he was excited about joining the team in the first place, to improve in non-hitting areas. Plus, don’t forget one of the Cardinals’ offseason additions to the front office. Molina will be back around this team in his special assistant role to president of baseball operations John Mozeliak. He’s not going to be specifically limited to working with catchers, but his return will help both Contreras and Ivan Herrera. There is no more potential Andrew Knizner timeshare to cloud the picture. Even some of Contreras’ previous perceived critics are singing a different tune these days.
“He took a lot of the blame and it really wasn’t him,†Cardinals turned Orioles turned Tigers starter Jack Flaherty said during a recent appearance on the “Foul Territory†baseball podcast. “I’m at fault for that because of things that I said. I wasn’t not talking about him. It was after a start against the Angels, and I’m talking about how we are throwing pitches that don’t make sense. And what I really meant to say is, ‘I’m not executing. I’m throwing two-strike sliders that are being called and are the right pitch and I’m throwing them right down the middle.’ And that was just something that was going on. That has nothing to do with your catcher at all. It doesn’t. It just comes down to execution. You can throw the right pitch, but when you throw it over the middle of the plate, I’m like, that doesn’t make sense to why I’m doing that and what’s going on. He came in. He wanted to learn. He wanted to work. He sat with me. He didn’t go to WBC (World Baseball Classic), which was a huge plus. I got to throw to him every single time. We got to work. We got to do those things. We just didn’t execute. That doesn’t come down to pitch calling. You could have had Yadier Molina back there. Obviously it was an adjustment for everybody, but when you don’t execute, bad things happen.â€
Flaherty had mentioned some of that stuff before. Good on him for taking full ownership in a national interview. Let the record show, though, that he was approached not once but twice that same May day and asked if he wished to clarify that pitches-that-don’t-make-sense comment, because I knew it was going to put tire tracks across the backs of both Contreras and first-year pitching coach Dusty Blake. When asked a second time back then if he was sure he wanted to let linger a comment that was going to be perceived that way, Flaherty responded, “I’m done.â€
And now it’s done.
Flaherty is in Detroit and Contreras needs to be a leader for the Cardinals, one who should feel a lot better now about speaking up in the clubhouse and helping guys like Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado drive this team back toward relevance.
Signs are finally pointing in the right direction.
Last season’s spinout could have pulled manager Oli Marmol and Contreras apart but it actually did the opposite. Miles Mikolas, the entrenched voice of the rotation now, has gone out of his way to praise Contreras for his team-first attitude. Mozeliak shared multiple Contreras thoughts at winter meetings, noting a) that the organization wasn’t quite properly prepared for its post-Molina transition, b) that the public floating of a Contreras position change was wrong and regrettable and most importantly, c) that Contreras got better at some of the areas the Cardinals wanted him to address via game-planning and pitch-calling as the season went along, a process that has continued this offseason. Molina will help, too, as Contreras relied on the former catcher via FaceTime when last season reached its roughest point.
"He's been very intentional this offseason," Mozeliak said about Contreras on Saturday morning at Winter Warm-up. "He's been working really hard. I think he's excited. He knows our group a lot better than he did a year ago. Having someone to bounce stuff off of by the name of Yadier Molina is something he welcomes as well. It's going to be a lot more natural, a little more organic. He kind of found himself in the second half last year. That's what we hope to see for the full season."
Contreras is a player who plays better when he knows his team, his teammates and his team’s fans believe in him. He’s about to hear during Winter Warm-up just how many fans appreciate how he handled last season’s adversity. It could be the start of something much more rewarding.
Cardinals baseball exec John Mozeliak talks moves, plus more Winter Warm-up videos
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Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak opening comments at Winter Warm-up on Saturday before taking questions from the media.Â
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