The Cardinals have a deal that will carry Willson Contreras to St. Louis for 5 years and $87.5MM. The longtime Cub will keep within the NL Central however will swimsuit up for his or her prime rival.
St. Louis has been decided to discover a beginning catcher this offseason. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak has spoken of that being the crew’s prime precedence on numerous events, and he informed reporters on Monday he hoped to land their new backstop earlier than the Winter Conferences wrapped up this afternoon. It seems the Playing cards will come by way of on that aim by nabbing the undisputed prime free agent possibility on the place.
Contreras is among the sport’s extra constant offensive threats behind the plate. He’s been a median or higher hitter in each season of his profession. Over components of seven MLB seasons, he carries a .256/.349/.459 line. Whereas he’s by no means topped 25 house runs, he’s eclipsed the 20-homer mark on 4 separate events. With solely a half-season of motion in 2016 and the truncated schedule in 2020, Contreras solely as soon as failed to succeed in 20 longballs over a full 12 months of taking part in time (again throughout a 2018 marketing campaign that proved his worst 12 months to this point).
The three-time All-Star will carry that offensive capacity to Busch Stadium, whereas he’ll be part of Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt as right-handed presences in the midst of the lineup. Contreras carried out in addition to he ever has throughout his platform 12 months, placing up a .243/.349/.466 line with 22 homers throughout 487 journeys to the plate in his last season as a Cub. These slash stats are about par for the course for Contreras’ profession, however they turn out to be more and more worthwhile in a league the place offense was down considerably. By measure of wRC+, his manufacturing was 32 proportion factors above league common, the very best such mark of his profession.
That offense is even rarer when in comparison with his positional friends. On the entire, catchers mustered only a .228/.295/.368 line this previous season. Of the 29 backstops with 300+ plate appearances, Contreras trailed solely Alejandro Kirk, Adley Rutschman and his youthful brother William Contreras in on-base proportion. Solely William Contreras, Cal Raleigh, J.T. Realmuto and Travis d’Arnaud had the next slugging mark.
Contreras backs that sturdy manufacturing up with high quality batted ball metrics. His common exit velocity has topped 90 MPH in every of the previous two seasons, whereas he’s bested a 47% onerous contact fee in every of the final three years. For reference, the league common marks in these respective classes are 88.4 MPH and and 35.8%. Contreras’ strikeout and stroll marks sometimes hover round common, resulting in a stable offensive profile constructed round his above-average energy.
Whereas there’s little query of his offensive observe document, Contreras’ glove has been a key speaking level for months. With the Cubs out of competition at this previous commerce deadline and exhibiting little urge for food to work out a long-term deal, the 30-year-old backstop was one of many summer time’s prime commerce candidates. Issues about his capacity to handle a pitching workers and name a sport trickled out within the weeks main as much as August 2, and the Cubs wound up hanging onto him. That’s to not say there was no curiosity — studies later emerged the Astros have been ready to ship starter José Urquidy to Chicago in a one-for-one swap earlier than Houston possession killed the deal — however trepidations about his game-calling acumen have lingered into the offseason.
That’s an unquantifiable concern, and it’s most likely not as urgent a difficulty with Contreras having just a few months to construct rapport with pitchers earlier than leaping into sport motion. Groups typically are usually cautious about drastic midseason shake-ups behind the plate, reasoning that it’s tough for a brand new acquisition to study pitcher tendencies within the midst of a pennant race. Houston skipper Dusty Baker, who inspired possession to kill the commerce over the summer time, informed reporters this week he’d be way more curious about bringing Contreras in as a free agent over the offseason. To that finish, Houston reportedly put forth a multi-year supply and was seemingly one of many favorites for his companies, nevertheless it seems they’ll lose out on the bidding in the long term.
Contreras, it’s price noting, fares effectively sufficient behind the plate in additional measurable facets. Statcast has pegged him as a roughly common pitch framer for the previous three seasons, as he labored to beat ghastly receiving marks from earlier in his profession. Contreras boasts a superb arm, having lower down 29.8% of tried base-stealers in his profession. That’s effectively north of this 12 months’s 25% league common. Statcast credited him with the Eleventh-lowest pop time (common time to throw to second on a steal try) amongst 73 backstops with 10+ makes an attempt in 2022.
St. Louis is clearly snug sufficient with Contreras’ total defensive profile to make him their successor behind the plate to franchise icon Yadier Molina. They explored numerous commerce and free agent potentialities, with studies tying them to the #2 free agent on the place (Christian Vázquez) and prime commerce candidates Sean Murphy and Danny Jansen. In the long run, they’ve held off on dealing away younger expertise for a catcher and have gone to the highest of the market in free company. Contreras will step in as their #1 backstop, relegating Andrew Knizner to order responsibility and permitting the crew to maintain prospect Iván Herrera in Triple-A.
Firstly of the offseason, MLBTR predicted he’d land a four-year, $84MM deal. One thing in that ballpark could be one of many largest free agent contracts in franchise historical past. The Cardinals have solely topped $80MM for a free agent on three events, including Matt Holliday for $120MM and going proper round $80MM for each Mike Leake and Dexter Fowler. As famous by Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, that is the biggest assure they’ve given to a free agent who hadn’t beforehand performed for the crew.
If a deal is finalized, the Cardinals may even should give up a draft alternative. Contreras declined a qualifying supply from the Cubs in the beginning of the offseason, tying him to draft compensation. St. Louis neither acquired income sharing funds nor surpassed the posh tax threshold in 2022. They’re due to this fact topic to straightforward penalties for signing one other crew’s certified free agent — the give up of their second-highest decide within the 2023 draft and $500K in worldwide signing bonus area.
The Cubs, in the meantime, will recoup a decide between Aggressive Steadiness Spherical B and the third spherical in subsequent 12 months’s draft. That sometimes checks in round seventy fifth total. It’ll be small comfort to a fanbase upset to see a fan favourite depart, notably to affix their most hated rival. Contreras’ departure has lengthy appeared an inevitability given the crew’s lack of want at making a longer-term dedication. Chicago will transfer ahead with Yan Gomes and probably an out of doors acquisition behind the dish, the newest instance of the crew closing the e book on its 2016 curse-breaking membership. Starter Kyle Hendricks, who’s underneath contract for yet one more season, is the only real remaining participant from that crew.
Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic first reported that the Cardinals have been closing in on a deal. Jon Heyman of The New York Post first floated the five-year construction. Jon Morosi of MLB Network first had the edges in settlement. Jesse Rogers of ESPN first had the $87.5MM assure.
Picture courtesy of USA At this time Sports activities.
