A done deal: Cardinals sign former Cub Contreras as Molina replacement, sources say

The St. Louis Cardinals have reached an agreement with free agent catcher Willson Contreras, filling their most pressing offseason need with a player who starred for their biggest rival.

Team officials said the club would not be able to offer comment on the situation until the completion of a physical, which could occur within the next 24 hours.

Contreras, 30, is a career .256 hitter with an OPS+ of 115, making him a 15% better than league average hitter. He’s crested 20 home runs in each of his last three full seasons and represents a significant upgrade to the middle of the order.

ESPN’s Jeff Passan first reported financial terms of the five-year, $87.5 million contract. The agreement represents the largest free agent deal the Cardinals have ever signed with a player who hadn’t previously played for the organization, eclipsing the five-year, $82.5 million pact with outfielder Dexter Fowler prior to the 2017 season.

Because Contreras received a qualifying offer from the Chicago Cubs, the Cubs will receive a compensatory pick in the 2023 draft following Competitive Balance Round B.

The Cardinals will surrender their second-highest pick in the 2023 draft and also lose $500,000 from their international signing bonus pool.

Team officials, including manager Oliver Marmol and president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, met recently with Contreras and his representatives at his home near Orlando and came away from that meeting impressed with both the potential fit and the “fire” of the player.

“This is a guy that loves to win, who wakes up thinking about it, goes to sleep thinking about it,” Marmol said Tuesday, before the deal was finalized. “We’ve seen it quite a bit across the way. And it’s a guy you don’t want to compete against because you know he’s pretty good. So, yeah, he’s a great competitor. And we respect his game.”

The team has repeatedly identified their vacancy behind the plate as their most pressing offseason need and expressed optimism that a deal could be consummated before leaving San Diego.

Oakland’s Sean Murphy, available in trade, was pursued by the Cardinals along a parallel track as the Cardinals explored whether an expenditure in dollars or player capitol better fit their broader plans for the offseason. As negotiations with the Athletics progressed, it became clear to the Cardinals that the fit in free agency – with Contreras – better suited their model.

“I would imagine that you tend to like your own players more than perhaps the industry does,” Mozeliak said, speaking broadly about the challenges in the trade market. “That’s because you see it, and you’re invested in them. I think that’s just human nature.”

By Tuesday night, a perceived change in the posture of the Cardinals was noticeable throughout the Manchester Grand Hyatt, the site of MLB’s annual Winter Meetings.

Long believed to harbor a serious interest in Murphy, the team’s meetings with Contreras and his representatives – at least one of which took place this week, following up the earlier meetings in Florida at the catcher’s home – took on a tone of seriousness as they examined his preparation as a game caller and receiver, skills for which he has often been criticized.

Among qualified catchers in 2022, according to Baseball Savant’s catcher framing metric, Contreras ranked tied for 29th with a net zero runs saved by framing. His percentage of called strikes, 46%, ranked 44th.

And yet he represents an improvement over his new backup, Andrew Knizner, who posted a net -6 runs saved by framing, worse than all but six qualified catchers. Knizner also received only 44.2% of pitches for strikes.

With the introduction of an automated balls and strikes system seemingly on the horizon and the rise of catching prospect Iván Herrera, the Cardinals are willing to take the gamble that their expenditure on Contreras represents a significant enough offensive boost to more than account for what they may lose with the retirement of Yadier Molina, one of MLB’s all-time best defenders.

“The opportunity to see more offense out of that position now is probably going to come more with the trade off of perhaps defense,” Mozeliak said.

Other suitors for Contreras’s services, such as the Houston Astros, approached the catcher about the possibility of splitting his time in the outfield, where he’s started 25 games in his career. Since making his debut in the midst of the 2016 season, Contreras has twice started more than 100 games behind the plate (2018, 2021) and twice more than 90 (2017, 2019).

In 2022, he was limited by an ankle injury to 72 starts as a catcher and 39 more as the designated hitter.

The expansion of the DH throughout MLB gives the Cardinals an option to provide Contreras occasional rest days, just as they have Nolan Arenado and Paul Goldschmidt, while keeping his bat in the lineup. It also allows for an expanded role for Herrera and others, working to develop a young catcher who the club believes will grow into an MLB regular while acknowledging he is not yet at that level.

In the short term, resolving the catching riddle allows the Cardinals to check the next boxes on their list. The pursuit of a left-handed bat to lengthen the lineup continues apace, with Orix Buffaloes outfielder Masataka Yoshida among players who fit their needs.

“Good hitter,” a team official offered, before reminding a reporter that the club doesn’t comment on specific free agents.

That policy, at time of this writing, applies to Contreras, but will not for much longer.

Mozeliak, who said earlier in the week he was “hopeful” of completing a deal before leaving San Diego, was spotted Wednesday morning in the hotel lobby accompanied by a suitcase just after news of the Contreras signing began to break.

He was “encouraged,” he said, by the progress of talks.

Consider them now concluded.

This story was originally published December 7, 2022 at 11:13 AM.