Albert Pujols, 42, is chasing 700 home runs while slashing .275/.350/.527 (145 wRC+) for the season. Adam Wainwright, 41, has a 3.09 ERA over 26 starts. And Yadier Molina, 40, ranks 5th in Defensive Runs Saved and 8th in overall DEF rating among all catchers.
The Cardinals don’t just torture us with random, uniquely-named players from the 8th round of a draft from four years ago (like Lars Nootbaar). They torture us with grandpas who’ve been doing it for 20+ years. It’s insane. And I hate it. Wholly. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel, if you’re a petty fan type.
At the end of this season, both Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina are finally retiring from baseball. Adam Wainwright probably isn’t there just yet, but his fastball is down to ~88MPH, so I don’t think he’ll be too far behind (he says with hope for the millionth time). So hooray, a lot less annoying Cardinals stuff next year! Right?
Unless, of course, the Cardinals’ next starting catcher is somehow an even more painful presence behind the plate than Molina. But how could that be? No one would be worse than Yadi, right? Eh. There’s one guy who might be.
Enter David Kaplan, via his Cubs-Blue Jays game “reKAP” on YouTube:
“(Willson Contreras) obviously has the respect of a lot of his teammates, he’s a 3x All-Star, he’s got the best arm in the National League, and I’ve already heard from people connected around the Cardinals that I know very well that they absolutely are going to be in play on Willson Contreras.”
… Oh come on.
Cubs catcher Willson Contreras, 30, is a free agent at the end of the year, coming off the best season of his big league career. The Cardinals are likely going to be contending again next year, albeit without an obvious starting catcher to replace Molina, and the market doesn’t look to have many starting-caliber catcher options. So, yeah … the fit is not that difficult to imagine.
That’s a bit of a nightmare.
But let’s not put the cart ahead of the horse here.
I do believe that Kaplan has heard of the Cardinals’ interest, and there is at least a superficial fit as we just discussed, but that’s not the whole story.
For one, the Cardinals do not strike me as the sort of organization that would value offense over game management behind the plate. Especially in free agency. My gut tells me they’d prefer an excellent veteran game-caller/receiver over an offensive stud, and that does not bode well for any pursuit of Willson Contreras.
For another, the Cubs are likely going to extend the qualifying offer to Contreras this offseason. That means that if the Cardinals want to sign him, they’ll have to forfeit a draft pick, the associated bonus pool space, and IFA bonus pool money (WHILE ALSO ensuring that the Cubs get another high pick in the 2023 draft).
And lastly, there’s also the chance that this is about pushing the Cubs into re-signing Contreras, themselves. Or maybe the Cardinals already believe the Cubs are likely to re-sign Contreras, and this is just about upping the cost via competition. You must always be skeptical of the source of information around stuff like this. And in this case we *know* it’s coming out of St. Louis, because Kaplan said it was.
So I’m not going to freak for now. Willson Contreras might be a Cub next year, he might not. But I don’t necessarily think the Cardinals’ interest is (yet) as worrisome as it might feel at first.