6 ways the St. Louis Cardinals can win this week's MLB Winter Meetings

#3: Find a suitor that Willson Contreras will waive his no-trade clause for

As the regular season was winding down, Chaim Bloom began to meet with key veterans in the Cardinals clubhouse to share with them the direction they were heading in this offseason. Sonny Gray became open to a trade and is now a Boston Red Sox, while Nolan Arenado agreed to expand his list of teams and appears to be on the way out. But when it came to Willson Contreras, he wanted to stick with the Cardinals, wishing to see his contract through and be a part of building something in St. Louis.

While Contreras did not completely rule out a trade, he did make it sound unlikely, but I've thought all offseason that once he got some space from the season and saw the Cardinals start tearing things down, I imagined he would open his mind to a potential deal.

Based on a new report from Katie Woo of The Athletic this past week, Contreras is indeed now more open to a potential trade away from St. Louis, but it will be on the Cardinals to find a suitor that actually convinces Contreras to waive his no-trade clause.

I threw out a list of teams on the site the other day that I found to be compelling fits, although it is hard to know how much Contreras weighs factors other than winning into his decision. Would he want to play with his brother in Milwaukee? Does he prefer a big market like New York? Or does he just want to be on a winning team like Seattle? There are a lot of factors at play, and other teams that fit the bill.

Should Contreras be willing to move in a deal, I do think the Cardinals could get a really nice return for him, similar to what they got for Sonny Gray a few weeks ago. The Cardinals had to eat $20 million on Gray's deal to get the trade to happen, and a good return to go with it, but Contreras has actually outplayed his $18 million salary every year since becoming a Cardinal. His bat has been one of the best in baseball, and he proved he can be a good defender at first base this year. With a weak position player group in free agency, Contreras is a great target for teams who would prefer not to give Pete Alonso a long-term deal.