7 Cardinals fighting for their jobs the rest of the season

Willson Contreras

Contreras will enter his second season of a five-year contract worth $87.5 million. He will remain a St. Louis Cardinal. The question remains whether he will have the starting catcher duties secured or will he split duties with his backup and be the team's designated hitter.

Contreras has split time with Knizner and Herrera this season and has been the team's designated hitter. Several starting rotation members had a different trust level with Contreras than with Molina and complained to management. While he quickly worked to gain trust, he will be working with new pitchers throughout the rest of this season and into Spring Training.

Contreras will be working to remain the Cardinals' everyday starting catcher.

Jordan Walker

As the top young star on the team, Walker will be in the lineup. While he has had some issues getting his swing righted this season, he's also struggled with his position in the outfield. He has had his moments, but watching him in the outfield mainly draws anxiety.

This is his first entire season playing in the outfield. He will work for the remainder of this season to improve. While getting out of his head and rested will be important this offseason, continuing to improve at the plate to get his swing corrected and improve his defense in the outfield will be just as important. To work on his skills, he should have one-on-one time with a former Cardinal, such as Matt Holliday, Jim Edmonds, Albert Pujols, or Mark McGwire.

Walker is going to be great. It would be good to see him have a productive offseason for a better 2024.