Cubs front office deserves an apology for Willson Contreras hysteria

The Chicago Cubs passed on re-signing catcher Willson Contreras, and he’s not being placed on the trade block by the St. Louis Cardinals.

At last year’s MLB trade deadline, the Chicago Cubs had two players who could have fetched a return — outfielder Ian Happ and catcher Willson Contreras. Even though the team was far out of a postseason spot, they opted to keep both players. The move was ridiculed, especially since Contreras was set to become a free agent at the end of the season. He did make it to the open market and emerged with a five-year, $87.5 million contract from the rival St. Louis Cardinals.

Cubs fans weren’t exactly thrilled with the approach by the president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer. The move had the potential to blow up in his face. After all, Contreras was signed to be the team’s successor to Yadier Molina, who retired after last season.

Instead, the Cubs are looking pretty smart right now, based on the latest news.

USA Today’s Bob Nightengale listed out the best position players that could be available at the trade deadline this year, and he dropped an interesting tidbit that Contreras is “on the block.” As in, he’s on the trade block.

Cubs proved right as Willson Contreras reportedly placed on the trade block

Contreras’ first season as Cardinals backstop has not gone as planned. Back in May, Contreras was benched and removed as the team’s starting catcher, just one month into his tenure in St. Louis. This was quite the decision for the Cardinals, who were planning on moving him to the outfield seemingly giving up on their long-term option at catcher. But then, he would eventually work his way back to the starting catcher role.

Through 85 games this season, Contreras recorded a .244 batting average, a .339 on-base percentage, a .428 slugging percentage, 11 home runs, 36 runs scored, 40 RBI, 73 hits, 79 strikeouts, and 34 walks in 299 at-bats. Defensively, Contreras recorded a .989 fielding percentage (496 putouts, 25 assists, and six errors on 527 total chances) and four passed balls.

Overall, this has been a disappointing season for the Cardinals. Instead of building off their second half of the season last year, they are below .500 and are set to sell players at the trade deadline for the first time in a long time. Contreras is on the block, per Nightengale, but it will be interesting to see if there will be any teams interested in bringing him in, especially since he’s not even a year into his long-term contract.

With the power of hindsight, the Cubs seemingly made the right move considering the Cardinals are reportedly ready to move on from Contreras. They did receive the 68th overall pick, a compensatory selection, due to Contreras declining the qualifying offer this past offseason and signing with the Cardinals. But, the Cubs have some trade deadline questions to answer — will they trade Cody Bellinger and Marcus Stroman, or will they keep them for the remainder of the season?