Cardinals Surprised Willson Contreras Is Not Yadier Molina

This week, John Mozeliak, president of baseball operations for the Cardinals, is getting his 15 seconds of fame for not seeming to realized that Willson Contreras is not Yadier Molina. It only took 625 innings and an abysmal start to the season to put that together.

Once he did, he and manager Oli Marmol decided to move Contreras from catcher to designated hitter, a position that since its inception in the American League in 1973 is typically occupied by a player who can't field. Thank God the National League adopted the DH in 2022, otherwise Moz and Mar would have had no idea what to do with Contreras.

A lot of people (like the entire Cubs organization) realized before Contreras even signed with the Cardinals that he was not longtime Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina, who retired from baseball after 19 seasons with the team. Defensively, Contreras is a far weaker player. But how could the Cardinals have realized this? He only faced them in 115 regular-season appearances with the Cubs before becoming a free agent.

Plus, Contreras talked a good game during a 3 1/2 hour job interview with the Cardinals by doing things like responding positively to the idea of playing for the team and improving every aspect of his game. Just like Yadi would have done, sigh.

At issue is Contreras' game calling, which is different from Molina's. Some say this is the reason the Cardinals are losing games. (It certainly doesn't help.) But the pitching this year is also not up to snuff. More than a few analysts suggested that the Cardinals might want to get an additional starting pitcher during this past off-season, but wiser heads prevailed and the Cardinals passed on getting any new starting pitcher to bolster a thin pitching core.

As Bernie Miklasz pointed out, pitchers Miles Mikolas, Jack Flaherty, Steven Matz and Adam Wainwright have pitched to a 5.97 ERA in 22 starts. But Mozeliak argues that's because they aren't pitching to Yadier Molina.

“Obviously the Cardinals were used to one guy behind the plate for close to two decades,” Mozeliak told the Athletic. “The nuances of that position, maybe very subtle, are what a lot of our pitchers were used to. What we were seeing was a lack of confidence. Normally, you would say, why didn’t you address this in spring training? But in spring training, it’s so different in terms of what people are trying to work on. Pitchers are going a couple of innings. It doesn’t really count."

And the adoption of the pitch clock this year didn't help the Cardinals pitchers or Contreras, who had to adjust to one another while adjusting to the clock, too.

Yes, why train people during spring training? Hey, if you can't win games, the next best thing is throwing someone under the bus for the losses.

Subscribe to Riverfront Times newsletters.
Follow us: Google News | NewsBreak | Reddit | Instagram | Facebook | Twitter