Cardinals president clears the air on plan for Willson Contreras

After plenty of mixed information about what the way forward was with Willson Contreras and the St. Louis Cardinals, president John Mozeliak explained.

On Saturday, the St. Louis Cardinals announced that Willson Contreras would have his starting catcher duties revoked, at least temporarily. Andrew Knizner would step in behind the plate and Contreras would be serving a designated hitter and outfielder role.

At least, that was the initial slant. Then, the team walked back its original plan to play Contreras in the outfield and said the way forward was to ultimately get him back in the field with catcher’s gear on. With one confusing wrinkle.

It’s a curious turn of direction here, but one that probably winds up making a bit more sense for all parties involved. Team president John Mozeliak gave an explanation as to why the team quickly changed course.

Cardinals president John Mozeliak explained Willson Contreras outfield plan

In an exclusive with Katie Woo and Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic, Cardinals President John Mozeliak said that the Cardinals did have a plan for Contreras in the outfield (subscription required), but that after talking with him on Saturday they opted to abandon that part of the plan.

For now, he will be a designated hitter and sit with bench coaches to talk over situations in real-time, presumably to absorb whatever it is he hasn’t thus far in the year.

Mozeliak conceded that he could find his way into the outfield in an emergency, but that right now it’s not in the plans.

The report indicated that Contreras approached the team after Saturday’s loss and announcement and said his hope is to be focused on just two roles: Catcher and designated hitter.

Mozeliak also cast the first ounce of blame we’ve really seen directly put on Contreras from anyone in the organization. He said that Yadier Molina, the team’s long-time catcher, developed many nuanced relationships with pitchers over the years and that the staff has appeared uncomfortable this season, with Contreras being the most obvious variable to single out.

He did say that he doesn’t believe it’s all Willson’s fault, though.

Ultimately, it feels like the plan ended up in the right spot. The Cardinals identified a big issue with the pitching is with the new catcher. They pulled him off and will have him prepare as a catcher, but DH in the interim (I’m not sure how well this will work in practice, but I understand the theory behind it). The outfield part of the plan was perplexing and misguided from the jump.

The issue is that it took Contreras letting the team know that wasn’t going to work for them to budge on it, and it took the president taking a call to explain it all to make it clear. After the strategy had been put out to the world.

The question is… Why weren’t Contreras and the team aligned before this was announced? And why was the announcement on Saturday so tangled and foggy?

In my view, this is an indictment on, in some part, Oli Marmol’s leadership, for not laying the plan out clearly from the jump. It put Contreras, and arguably the entire organization, in an uncomfortable position.

Yes, it’s uncomfortable to put a player “on blast” so to speak, but there’s a way to address the decision and the way forward with tact. Mozeliak found a way to do so, but it shouldn’t have come to that.