Oli Marmol’s assessment of Willson Contreras at first base leaves a ton to be desired

In hopes of keeping its most consistent hitter in the lineup day in and day out, the St. Louis Cardinals made the bold decision to move catcher Willson Contreras 90 feet up the line to first base this offseason. The permanent move was announced by president of baseball operations John Mozeliak in November, which ultimately sealed Paul Goldschmidt's free agency fate.

While the shift should ultimately raise St. Louis' offensive ceiling, there are legitimate questions as to how Contreras can perform defensively in a new position. After all, the 32-year-old has only lined up at first base for 11 games during his career, with the last instance coming with the Chicago Cubs in 2019.

Manager Oli Marmol spoke about the positional change at the Cardinals' 28th Winter Warm-Up, an event aimed to excite the fanbase ahead of the 2025 season. His response should create a bit of concern for fans, with the focus more about his desire rather than the skill level so far.

"First base is hard," Marmol said. "You think you stick the least athletic person in at first. That's not how that works, first base is very difficult. Contreras is very athletic. Stubby [Clapp] actually just spent the last three days with José Oquendo and Contreras down in Jupiter working on footwork around the bag and different stuff just to slow it down for Contreras.

"The reports were really really good. He is working hard at it. He is passionate about being a very good first baseman. And the key to all of this is just keeping him healthy. A healthy Contreras in the lineup everyday is a better Cardinal team and that's why we're making the move."

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It may not be as seamless of a positional transition for Willson Contreras as the Cardinals may have hoped

We may be reading into Marmol's statement a bit too much, but what does passion really mean when at the end of the day the ball club requires results. The wording makes us think there is a long way to go in the hopes of this working out, at least defensively.

While the expectations for the 2025 Cardinals aren't that high given their inactivity this offseason, the franchise still hasn't made it past the Wild Card round of the playoffs since 2019. You'd still expect a youthful Cardinal team during a front office transition to at least be competitive within the NL Central. Contreras is going to play a large part in that hope coming to fruition.

The three-time All-Star finished second on the Cardinals in WAR accumulated (behind Masyn Winn) and first in OPS, even though his season was cut short in August thanks to a fractured the middle finger on his right hand.

It's fair to say that Contreras is going to have a steep learning curve during the beginning stages of the 2025 season. Sure, he is 'passionate'. That's step one. Next is learning and developing the skills needed to thrive at the level the organization is asking of him. We won't know the exact progress until at least Spring Training. For now, there are plenty of questions.

The advantages of the move are there, yes. But it takes much more than athleticism and enthusiasm to become a reliable everyday first baseman in Major League Baseball.