The Cardinals can't afford to keep enabling Willson Contreras' tired act

The St. Louis Cardinals walked off the Pittsburgh Pirates thanks to an Alec Burleson home run on Monday night. But what should've been a small bright spot amid a frustrating season was instead overshadowed by the antics of Willson Contreras, who threw arguably the meltdown of the year after being ejected in the bottom of the seventh inning.

Contreras had just looked at what was very obviously strike three, a fastball more or less down the middle from Pittsburgh righty Yohan Ramirez. But he still had something to say to home-plate umpire Derek Thomas while walking back to the dugout — something that Thomas felt was egregious enough to eject him from the game. From there, Contreras absolutely lost it: He got chest-to-chest with Thomas and had to be physically restrained from things getting even uglier; then, while being escorted back to the dugout, he flung his bat in the direction of first-base umpire Stu Scheurwater, hitting St. Louis hitting coach Brant Brown instead.

Oh, and he put the cherry on top by flinging a bucket of gum onto the field before he left for the showers.

It was, frankly, an embarrassing display, the sort of thing that would have been way over the line even if Contreras — a 10-year veteran who should know better — had been ejected unfairly. But things only got worse after the game, when the first baseman appeared to straight-up lie to reporters about what had happened.

“I don’t think he had any reason to throw me out,” Contreras said, per The Athletic. “I didn’t argue any pitch in any at-bat. The only thing I said was, ‘Call the pitches for both sides, because you’re missing for us.’ I turned around, he threw me out, he had no reason for it. Apparently he heard something that I said, but I didn’t say that.”

The evidence, however, shows something else. Rather than simply telling Thomas to call things both ways, the audio on the Pirates broadcast clearly appears to show Contreras saying, "You hear me? I don't play," before then adding "f--- off".

Whether an umpire should simply turn the other cheek while a player is walking back to the dugout is a debate for another day. What's pretty inarguably true is that Contreras was the aggressor here, and that he flew off the handle in a flat-out unacceptable way — one that dragged his own teammates and coaches into the crossfire.

And this is hardly the first time. Contreras' temper has become more and more of an issue this year, even touching off an unnecessary benches-clearing incident with the Chicago Cubs back in late June.

Fire and passion is one thing. A clear inability to keep your cool is another, and at this point, it feels safe to say that Contreras' attitude has become a real problem for the Cardinals now to deal with. This isn't a young player still adjusting to life in the Majors, or a mercurial superstar that St. Louis is compelled to try and accommodate. Contreras is supposed to be the one setting the tone for an increasingly inexperienced clubhouse, and the fact that he's still pulling this nonsense should set off alarm bells moving forward.

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Cardinals have been far too patient with Willson Contreras' antics

The Cardinals are about to transition from the John Mozeliak era to Chaim Bloom, an executive with a track record of building from the ground up wherever he's been. As if it weren't clear already, this is going to be a full-on rebuild in St. Louis, one that's going to prioritize a new generation of homegrown talent, cost-controlled talent.

Molding that young talent, the JJ Wetherholts and Masyn Winns and Leonardo Bernals, is now the most important thing the organizatoin can do moving forward. Which is why it should worry everybody involved that one of the team's most prominent veterans, a guy who will be around for at least two more years as he turns down the opportunity for a trade, consistently behaves like this.

Contreras remains a good player. But he's no longer a great one, especially now that he's transitioned full-time to first base. And he's certainly not valuable enough to a retooling team to get away with this sort of stuff. The Cardinals need to be prioritizing model behavior, guys who can show the next generation how to prepare and how to win; Contreras right now is the precise opposite of that, and if he can't change, St. Louis will need to make some tough decisions.