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3 reasons why moving Willson Contreras to DH hurts the Cardinals in the future
There are three reasons moving Willson Contreras to DH could hurt the future of the Cardinals
I think I can speak for everyone watching or following the St. Louis Cardinals that we did not expect Willson Contreras' catcher spot to be in jeopardy so early in the season or even in jeopardy at all for the 5 years that the Cardinals have him. But 36 games into the season and an abysmal 12-24 record led to the front office making some changes in the lineup and the roster as a result of the Cardinals' woes as of late.
There is no doubt the Contreras can hit posting a solid slash line of .273/.346/.405 he has been one of the better Cardinal hitters solidifying himself in the middle of the order in every game that he starts. The hitting was never an issue though for the Cardinals organization it seemed to be his fielding and pitch calling that was the reason for the Cardinals to temporarily remove him from his catching duties in the meantime. The Birds pitching has not been doing any favors for the team allowing an average of 4.89 runs per game it is hard to win games when the offense has been as inconsistent as it is.
Is removing Willson Contreras from his catching duties really the best option that the front office could come up with in order to get the team back on track? Cardinals fans surely don't think so expressing their anger at the front office for almost putting the blame on Contreras for the reason why the pitching has been so poor and giving up on him so early in the season. Not only does it create a whole clubhouse fiasco but it also creates issues with the lineup and what happens moving forwards with the Cardinals. This move hurts the Cardinals in more ways than it helps and here is why.
1. The lineup clutter
The lineup becomes slightly more complicated with Contreras filling the DH spot. Nolan Gorman who has been the bonified DH so far has been a top 3 hitter in our lineup with him slashing a .255 AVG with 7 HR and an OPS of .806 he has been one of the bright young splashes in the Cardinals lineup. Donovan has also been swinging the bat well hitting .267 with 3 HR to his name and has shown he needs everyday ABs.
This leaves three odd people out of the lineup with Contreras being the main DH as said going forward, Burelson, Dejong, and O'Neil (when he is healthy). The best hitter out of these three so far surprisingly has been Paul Dejong batting a solid .324 AVG with an OPS of .943 second only behind the former MVP Paul Goldschmidt. But this leaves a question what happens with these players in the lineup, do they get traded? Do they have major platoon options? It will be interesting to see how Marmol manages this lineup with Contreras DHing being a major roadblock in the lineup.
2. Andrew Knizner's bat
The Cardinals have seen this story time and time again with Andrew Knizner, while Knizner is fantastic behind the dish defensively and is one of the top framers when catching the ball statistically according to Baseball Savant he just provides a huge weak spot in the lineup for the Cardinals.
Knizner has struggled offensively his entire career only batting .203 in the majors with an OBS of just .537 he doesn't provide the offense that the Cardinals need at the bottom half of the order. It's safe to say that the Cardinals are tying their hands with the lineup in forcing Knizner into the lineup taking away quality at-bats from other players that clearly have shown they are capable of swinging the stick.
3. Clubhouse drama
Let's be real, the Cardinals clubhouse has been in absolute shambles the last couple of weeks due to the frustration of losing 8 straight games. It seemed that the front office decided to pick on the main acquisitions in the postseason as the main problem for the Cardinals, which was completely unfair. With Tyler O'Neill being singled out for not hustling around the bases, it begs the question in the clubhouse of who will get singled out next.
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Contreras handled the criticism from the front office pretty well by practically carrying the Cardinals to the first victory in an opening game against the formal ball club and Cardinals rival the Chicago Cubs. It will be interesting to see what the front office says and does about Contreras in the future.
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