MLB Rumors: Grading new trade fits for Shohei Ohtani, Braves, Willson Contreras

MLB Rumors: Don’t anticipate the Cardinals trading Willson Contreras

There have been rumors suggesting that the St. Louis Cardinals will make Willson Contreras available at the trade deadline.

How it has been described to me is that a trade is incredibly unlikely, for a variety of reasons.

For starters, his five-year, $87.5 million contract makes him virtually impossible to trade. At this point, it’s one of the worst contracts in baseball, and when hardly any team was willing to trade for him last season when he was on an expiring contract … it’s hard to see that changing now when he has four years remaining on his deal.

Even then, Contreras has holes in his game that worried teams dating back to the last trade deadline. How he would handle working with a whole new pitching staff in the middle of the season. His defense is not his strong suit, either. He also controls his own destiny with a no-trade clause. That complicates a potential trade even more.

For this exercise, I was asked to come up with a potential trade fit for Contreras. I was unable to come up with one. The contract, and the concerns with the player from other teams, make it too difficult to forecast.