Cardinals Willson Contreras plan just got more confusing

The St. Louis Cardinals plan for Willson Contreras now involves Oli Marmol babysitting the estranged catcher.

Willson Contreras is not the starting catcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. It’s not due to injury, it’s simply the plan the Cardinals feel is best for the team right now.

Imagine reading that in mid-March, when the Cardinals were in Spring Training and excited about the catcher they pulled away from the Cubs for $87.5 million. Now, the Cubs look like the winners.

Contreras has been relegated to designated hitting duty and, apparently, outfield work. But maybe not. Don’t ask anyone in the Cardinals organization, why would they know what’s going on?

Here’s a new development though. Contreras is going to continue doing pregame catcher drills and is sitting in on pitcher meetings. He’s also sitting near Marmol and the bench coaches to talk over scenarios during the game.

The more we learn about this “plan”, the less it makes sense.

Cardinals plan for Willson Contreras is oh-so-confusing

To add to the above, check out Contreras on the “coaching staff” on Sunday afternoon:

So, basically, the Cardinals have realized they’re paying Contreras way too much money to DH and are looking to use him as a partial coach now? Or, they’re effectively babysitting him during games to do some real-time imparting of whatever knowledge he’s been missing that has led to his poor play so far this season.

This feels like a long, complicated road to scapegoat Contreras who is definitely not playing up to expectations, but absolutely isn’t the crux of all the Cardinals problems.

Charting a path for Contreras to get back to the role they intended for him makes sense. They’re paying too much money to go away from that plan just yet. But frankly, this feels like it has the potential to do more harm than good. Contreras will be spending time away from the position, which gives him every chance to build up physical rust and possibly take him even further out of his groove.

It’s just hard to see how this plan will be helpful.