Willson Contreras will return to catching duties on Monday, per John Denton of MLB.com. He’ll catch Jack Flaherty’s begin. The transfer comes nearly every week after the staff revealed they’d be utilizing Contreras completely as a chosen hitter.
“We felt actually good concerning the progress that we’ve made and it strains up very well for him to catch on Monday with Jack (Flaherty) on the mound,” supervisor Oli Marmol instructed reporters (together with Denton).
It marks the newest twist into what’s change into fairly the saga for the Cardinals and their main low season recruit. Only a week in the past it was reported that the staff would depend on Andrew Knizner and Tres Barrera for catching duties, as they labored by means of points the staff described as a “insecurity”.
It hasn’t taken lengthy for that to show round, however questions will definitely be forthcoming over the staff’s dealing with of this, and whether or not it wanted to be performed out as publicly because it was when all it took was Contreras skipping every week or so of catching duties – roughly one journey by means of the staff’s rotation.
The Cardinals have gained 4 of the 5 matches they’ve performed since shifting Contreras off catching duties, however run prevention has remained a difficulty by means of these video games, with the staff giving up 21 runs by means of that interval. On the time of Contreras’ demotion, the Playing cards ranked twenty fourth in beginning pitching ERA, and so they’ve slipped again to twenty sixth since.
For Contreras’ half, he struggled on the plate over the previous week, hitting simply .192/.250/.346, however it’s after all unattainable to know precisely how the staff’s determination affected his efficiency on the plate. On the season, Contreras has continued to be a robust menace with the bat, and is hitting .263/.340/.406 with three residence runs thus far, good for a 109 wRC+.
It’s been a difficult season thus far in St Louis, with the staff sitting in final place within the Nationwide League with a 14-25 document. As famous, they’ve been a bit higher over the previous week however there’s nonetheless a protracted technique to go for them to show their season round.
