Is Willson Contreras Worth Giving up the 2nd Round Pick?

The St. Louis Cardinals have found their replacement for the spot vacated by longtime catcher Yadier Molina, reaching a five-year, $87.5 million deal with free agent Willson Contreras on Wednesday, a source familiar with the deal told ESPN's Jeff Passan.

 

Bless you Cardinals.

And good luck with the back end of that contract.

 

I am not a believer in giving 10+ year guaranteed contracts. But 5 year deals for a player you truly believe improves your team? Yes. This was a big loss. I agree with Ben to the extent that there is no cap in baseball and when you see something that helps your team, do it.

 

It's disingenuous to simply state "its not your money." The whole point for fans to worry about money is that there IS a spending limit in an owner's mind and big contracts DO impact future ability to make moves. Crane isn't spending $40mil+ at every position.

I was neutral on Contreras, I don't think there is a lot of upside at what he ultimately got from the Cards. I would like to see a long-term commitment to a catcher though, preferably one that has some hitting potential. With rapidly improving predictive hitter analytics, de-emphasis on the running game and automated strike zone incoming, the "defense-only" catcher is becoming a dinosaur and its time to pivot.

 

FWIW with next year's changes to the base sizes, there may be a bigger emphasis on the running game and a lot more steals coming soon.

 

And the pick off attempt rule. Vince Coleman may make a comeback.

 

Does anyone know where Billy Hamilton is?

 

Saving that money to re-up Altuve, Bregman, Tucker, Valdez, etc over the next few three seasons helps the team way more than still owing a player at a defensive position 20 mil a year until 2027. Astros have the players, keeping as many as possible is the goal. We are the 93’ Bulls. 2-3 yr deals should be all Crane offers.

Mets have paid ridiculous money too stay parallel. If not slightly worse Losing DeGrom, Walker and likely Bassitt would be more impactful than replacing them with JV and Quintana. I’d much rather keep Bassitt at a third of the cost than what the blew on Nimmo for extended DL trips.

 

Contreras
98 ABs
13 R
27 H
2 HR
12 RBI

Maldonado/Diaz
101 ABs
9 R
20 H
1 HR
6 RBI

The jury is still out.

Now if he would have been brought in to mainly play LF, then Julks is holding his own vs Contreras quite nicely.

 

Let's not forget that Contreras on the roster means that Diaz is in AAA.

 

I don’t know the resolution between the Astros and Diaz will entail, but I do know that it is very possible Diaz would have as good or better numbers than Contreras if he were starting as often as Contreras.

The Contreras contract really isn’t that big, and if we didn’t have Diaz, I would be more upset about it.

If people listen closely to what Dusty says, he is usually pretty honest and direct. Before Contreras signed with the Cardinals, he said that the Astros had to decide between Diaz and Contreras long term.

 

Fairly irrelevant statement in this particular discussion.

Unless your point is to say another negative to the Contreras signing would have been the effective end of Diaz as an Astro.

 

How long until Korey Lee is traded?

 

Maybe not an end as an Astro but possibly.

But he would definitely not be in Houston now making a positive impression.

 

The people who said no are smoking some good ****

 

Maldy was under contract regardless.

So if the Astros had signed Contreras ( and assuming the Abreu signing also still happens) then Maldy ONLY starts 50% of the time?

So, as of now, after 31 games, Contreras starts 15 or 16 games at catcher and then rest in LF/DH?

That's 7 or 8 fewer starts for Maldy and 7 or 8 fewer starts for Julks as the "best case scenario"

Once Brantley returns, Contreras loses the majority of his LF/DH starts.

Then everyone here is losing their minds because Contreras is sitting on the bench 50% of the time or more.

 

Brantley likely wouldn't have been brought back had they agreed to terms with Contreras. There's no scenario in which they signed Contreras and didn't have him starting somewhere 90% of the time.

Maldonado probably still would have caught 80-100 games, keeping Contreras fresh for October would have a been a key part of the plan. His offensive numbers have consistently gotten worse as the season went on. There was good reason to think part time catcher Contreras will hit better for a full season instead of tailing off.

Diaz quite possibly would be in the same situation he is in now... playing very little but providing a 3rd catcher with Contreras DHing so much. The question is would Dusty have played ball splitting up catcher duties between the 3 instead of HOFer Maldonado starting 125 times.

 

I had not thought of that and I agree with you.

But I still can't shake the feeling that Maldy would have been behind the plate 3 out if every 4 playoff games.

Dusty honestly thinks Maldy brings enough to the table that he is the best option and gives the team the best chance to win.

I have confidence that Diaz can play well enough behind the plate to change that. Contreras doubtful.

Yordan and Contreras would have ended up sharing LF/DH

 

For all the Contreras people... Cardinals are picking a guy batting .153 with a .456 OPS to be their new starting catcher.

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/37523580/cardinals-moving-875m-signing-willson-contreras-dh-of

Cardinals moving $87.5M signing Willson Contreras to DH, OF

 

https://bbs.clutchfans.net/threads/...iscussion-thread.319343/page-42#post-14623781