Ranking the 10 worst and most inexplicable Cardinals sagas under John Mozeliak

4. Scapegoating Willson Contreras for their own overreliance on Yadier Molina covering their deficiencies

I mean, talk about public humiliation. Still, to this day, I cannot believe how poorly the Cardinals handled Willson Contreras back in 2023, and it is incredible to me that he still wants to represent the organization in spite of that.

After a terrible start to their 2023 season, some members of the Cardinals' pitching staff reportedly complained to Marmol and Mozeliak about Contreras' ability behind the plate, and the club decided to remove catching duties from Contreras altogether, announcing that he would become an outfielder/designated hitter for the club for the rest of the year.

After rightfully being called out by the fanbase as well as both local and national media, the Cardinals quickly backed off that stance, instead just putting Contreras at designated hitter for a few weeks before allowing him to return to catching duties, but the damage had already been done.

The Cardinals somehow expected Contreras, who had always been a sub-par defensive catcher, to magically step in and replace Molina defensively, one of the, if not the, greatest defensive catcher to ever live. As an organization, they lagged behind in terms of what they needed to do to prepare catchers and their pitching staff, because frankly, they relied on Molina to carry that load. So when he left, they were in shambles, not just because they lost an all-time great, but because they got lazy and fell behind in their own jobs.

Not only that, Contreras was also tasked with catching a terrible pitching staff, one that completely imploded during the season, and not just because of him, like they wanted people to believe. Adam Wainwright was awful that season, Miles Mikolas wasn't much better, Jack Flaherty was about as inconsistent as can be, and when Steven Matz was healthy, he was bad too. Their young arms of Dakota Hudson, Jake Woodford, Zack Thompson, Matthew Liberatore, and Drew Rom didn't do much better either.

It was a dumpster fire of a situation, and all of baseball called the Cardinals' bluff when they tried to pin it on Contreras. Was he part of the problem? Yes. But he was not the main issue, and he's done nothing but handle that situation, among other issues, like an absolute professional. The Cardinals are extremely lucky to have Contreras in their organization, and yet they have rarely treated him with that level of respect.

Losing a franchise icon like Molina is difficult, but Mozeliak made it far messier than it needed to be.