ST. LOUIS – Willson Contreras will not play in the outfield.
The Cardinals — in what is seen as a long-term strategy to improve both inefficiency behind the plate and an underperforming pitching staff — have placed Contreras in the role of batsman-designate and temporarily revoked his initial catch duties. Their original plan called for Contreras to play outfield to keep his racquet in the lineup. As of Sunday, however, the Cardinals slightly reversed course.
“We’re not going to have him in the outfield,” baseball operations president John Mozeliak said Sunday during a phone call with The Athletic. “I know that came out yesterday but after speaking to him it’s basically going to be more in the DH role. And there is light at the end of the tunnel to get back behind the record.
“I don’t expect it (contreras in outfield) unless there’s an emergency,” Mozeliak added. “Everything went quickly yesterday. A lot of things came out. His hope is that he gets a chance to get behind the plate. We will work towards that.”
Cardinals manager Oli Marmol also addressed the matter on Sunday morning.
“There are ways to ensure that (Contreras’) bat is in the lineup while we implement our plan internally,” Marmol said, noting that the outfield was seen as one of those opportunities. “How long will it take? to which I have no answer. But there’s a plan that we’re comfortable with to make sure we put him where he’s comfortable and our pitchers are comfortable executing.”
This is the 21st home run allowed in two strikes with the Cardinals.
When we talk about court selection, game calling, etc., let’s also remember that execution matters too.
— Katie Woo (@katiejwoo) May 7, 2023
Contreras closed in on the Cardinals on Saturday after the club lost to Detroit 6-5 in extra innings for their eighth consecutive loss. He understood his role will be that of the team’s primary designated batsman for now. However, he expressed a desire to focus on two positions, the catcher and the designated hitter. The Cardinals have adjusted and will no longer keep him in their tentative outfield plans.
Whether Contreras plays outfield or just at DH, however, takes a backseat to the main question: Why aren’t the Cardinals using him as a catcher after committing $87.5 million over the next five years?
“Obviously, the Cardinals have been used to a man behind the plate for almost two decades,” Mozeliak said. “The nuances of this position, perhaps very subtle, are what a lot of our pitchers were used to. What we saw was a lack of trust. Normally you’d say, why didn’t you address that in spring training? But in spring training it’s so different what people are trying to work on. Pitchers go a few innings. It doesn’t really count.
“With that, we’ve noticed a lot of puzzling trends that we know we need to fix. We know we have to deal with this. … We just decided to do it directly, to release it. Do we think we saw how Willson watched his last game? No. But it will take a little while for him to get where we feel like he understands what’s expected of us in this role.”
The Cardinals were used to a certain level of preparation and perhaps spoiled by nearly two decades of Yadier Molina. While they knew they couldn’t — and didn’t try — replace Molina’s presence, they perhaps underestimated the difficulty the staff would have adjusting to a new catcher.
“What I don’t want is a finger pointing, it’s all Williamson’s fault. It’s not,” Mozeliak said. “There are currently many parts of our team that are not performing as we expected. I think the nuances of the fangs side, we didn’t have to expend a lot of energy to think about it because of what Yadi did for us. You know the saying that you sometimes feel like you have a coach on the pitch? That was Yadi. That’s what we thought. While you might have a game plan, Yadi had the opportunity to let that develop during a game, making real-time decisions.”
Complicating matters further is the debut of the pitch clock this season, which adds another component to game prompting and pitch selection. Pitchers feel they don’t have enough time to shrug off pitches they don’t agree with. The pitchers, contreras and coaching staff have yet to find an in-game solution to alleviate the problem.
“If you ask where is that on the pitcher side, the difference is that this year you have a pitch clock,” Mozeliak explained. “In the past, hypothetically, if you were my catcher and kept asking me to throw a slider, I could just dismount. Finally, if you wanted to burn one of your hill visits, we could talk about it. But the watch has changed the dynamic of interaction. It speeds things up. We need to strategize how the communication between our catcher and the pitchers can become more seamless, open and timely to allow for when they are not on the same page.
Mozeliak said he still believes in Contreras’ ability to catch. However, he also acknowledged that the start of the team’s five-year stint with Contreras had not started well.
“We’ve had a lot of face-to-face meetings together,” Mozeliak said. “We assured him we hadn’t lost faith in him. What we need to do is come up with a strategy that works for all parties.”
“You have to have faith in people in certain roles, that’s what matters,” Mozeliak said. “We’ll be patient, but look again, this hasn’t gone the way we thought it would. You have to remember that it’s a long season, but it certainly came off on the wrong foot. … I do (still believe in Contreras). But some of the things we’re expecting, some of the things about the game that we’ve grown accustomed to, I think he realizes it’s going to take more preparation. Now the question is, can this happen? I guess we have to find out.”
The Cardinals got off to a disastrous start. They came into play on Sunday, close to being swept for the third straight series. They have lost eight games in a row and their 10-24 record is the worst in the National League. Their .294 win ratio is higher than just Kansas City and Oakland, both of which are .235.
St. Louis took a number of risks this past offseason. The team did not address their rotation. The Cardinals are banking on their inner depth and young talent. And they signed Contreras believing he would adjust to a new pitching stick over the course of a few months.
So far not much has worked.
“When you make off-season decisions, hope they work and work,” Mozeliak said. “But there are a lot of things that just didn’t go right for us. Nobody cares if you’re unlucky.
“The good thing is we have time on our side. Hopefully we can all be patient enough to get through this.”
(Photo by Willson Contreras: Kelley L. Cox / USA Today)