Ranking who deserves blame for the Cardinals' issues with Willson Contreras

#2 - The Pitching Staff

I mean, at some point the Cardinals have to realize they have a bad pitching staff, and more specifically, a bad starting rotation, right?

Contreras referred to a conversation that he had last weekend with Molina, where the legendary Cardinals catcher told Contreras that transitioning to a new staff would be difficult, to trust his own feel and pitching calling abilities, and continue to prepare well. But ultimately, Molina told Contreras the main issue was missed execution from their starters.

Ouch.

What I find especially intriguing about these comments is that Molina has caught pretty much every pitcher Contreras caught this season. He's not calling out the execution of guys he doesn't know, he's calling out the poor execution of pitchers he's worked with for years. I don't think that is something Molina would do lightly.

The Cardinals' pitching was a major question mark entering the 2023 season, and there has been increased commentary lately on how their lack of swing-and-miss stuff sets them up for failure. Everyone saw the pitching, especially the rotation, as a major issue, so to act surprised by a lack of execution to this point is ridiculous.