The St. Louis Cardinals are among the most active teams when it comes to early offseason rumors, but there’s one current Cardinals player you’re not hearing much about and that’s Willson Contreras. That’s
one reason why it’s starting to feel that he is likely to not be changing uniforms.
There’s a new report just shared today by MLB Trade Rumors about the St. Louis Cardinals offseason plans. Among there notes are rumors we’ve already heard about interest in Brendan Donovan and the Cardinals intentions of finding a new home for Nolan Arenado and Sonny Gray. None of those were news to me, but they did mention something I had not thought of. They say that at the recent GM meetings, there was no buzz about Willson Contreras even though they theorized that he would be the easiest to move because of perceived interest in his offense.
Now that I think about it, I cannot recall even one reasonable report about Willson Contreras being linked to any other team which means there are two possibilities of what’s going on. Either the St. Louis Cardinals are not actively looking for a trade partner for Willson Contreras or Chaim Bloom and his team are doing what I recommended a few days ago and keeping their plans below the radar. Although I’m a fan of the 2nd option, it’s hard in the internet age to keep at least vague rumors from being shared. That leads me to believe that it’s becoming more likely that Willson Contreras will not be one of the veteran players moved.
Here’s what we know for a fact. Willson has said that he’d prefer to stay a Cardinal and be a leader on a young team, but we also know that he’s willing to waive his no-trade clause if the right situation presented itself. He is the one veteran I think the Cardinals would benefit by keeping. One of my pet peeves about recent St. Louis Cardinals teams is the lack of intensity. It’s one thing to lose, but it’s far worse to not display any fight. Willson Contreras is one player that can never be accused of that as he always seems to have the fire you want to see. That’s what I always appreciated about Yadier Molina. You always knew you were going to see maximum effort and he expected that from the rest of the team, too. As the Cardinals rebuild, we need players like Contreras to communicate that need for intensity to the incoming youth.
Here’s one final thought. We are still extremely early in the offseason and a lot can change as we get closer to the winter meetings in December. If the Cardinals are successful in moving Arenado and Gray, will that make Willson more likely to want to be traded, too? That doesn’t seem like the kind of person Willson Contreras is. In late September, Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Willson told Chaim Bloom he wants to stay with the Cardinals and I believe that’s becoming more likely to happen.
