After spending the first seven years of his career with the Chicago Cubs, Willson Contreras stayed in the NL Central and joined his long-time rivals, the St. Louis Cardinals back in 2023. It didn't take long at all before Contreras was hinting at the idea that he appreciated how things ran in the St. Louis organization far more than in Chicago, and put on a front like he was in a much better situation.
Now through 77 games in 2025 and after making the transition from catcher to first base, Contreras is hitting .245 with 10 homers and 50 RBIs. While these numbers are respectable, they are not up to the three-time all-star's standards. How could he fix that? Well, it would help if the Cardinals played the Cubs every night.
In 23 games against the Cubs since joining St. Louis, Contreras has an impressive .324 batting average to go along with eight RBIs and nine runs scored. As impressive as this is, Contreras was not able to help his team make up ground in the division standings in the final game of a four game set against the Cubs.
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Willson Contreras couldn't do anything against the Cubs
Believe it or not, we are already to that point in the year where the standings matter. Teams are fighting to put themselves in a position to be playing meaningful baseball in October. Just like no one anticipated, the St. Louis Cardinals are one of those teams.
Despite all of the offseason chatter regarding an inevitable rebuild and trading Nolan Arenado, the Cardinals currently hold a NL Wild Card spot and would make the postseason if the season ended today. Regardless if they imagined being in this position or not, a division title is still not out of question as they are just 4.5 games back from the Chicago Cubs.
This margin could have been even smaller if the Cardinals were able to take the last two games head-to-head against the division leaders, but the Red Birds were blanked two consecutive nights, losing 8-0 and 3-0 to tie the series at two a piece.
Obviously there were many others who struggled in those two shutout losses but to see Willson Contreras go 0-4 with three strikeouts in arguably the biggest games of the season, you can't help but wonder if it had something to do with the fact it was against the team he has spent the majority of his career with.