Cards’ Contreras pursuit may be at a standoff

SAN DIEGO — A Cardinals franchise assured earlier within the week that it will in the end depart MLB’s Winter Meetings with the catcher it desperately wants and covets — high goal, Willson Contreras — noticed these negotiations hit a snag on Tuesday and left it questioning concerning the identification of its catcher for 2023 and past.

As is usually the case in high-stakes free-agency negotiations, Contreras’ possibilities of donning a Cardinals uniform subsequent season will probably come all the way down to {dollars} and the extent the Redbirds are prepared to go when it comes to the size of his subsequent contract. Also, there’s this: Which entity will blink first on caving to the opposite’s calls for — the catching-starved Cardinals or probably the most achieved backstop on the free-agent market?

According to a supply who requested anonymity, the Cardinals’ hopes of touchdown Contreras severely slowed Tuesday when St. Louis refused to budge on a deal longer than three years for the 30-year-old catcher. While the Cardinals have been prepared to satisfy the monetary calls for of the profession .256 profession hitter — roughly $17 million per season — the exclusion of a fourth yr and presumably an possibility for a fifth proved to be a deal-breaker. Now, the Cardinals wait on a change of coronary heart from Contreras, upping the size of their provide or presumably pursuing different choices. Oakland’s Sean Murphy or Toronto’s Alejandro Kirk might come by way of a commerce that can value them solely prospects.

“We have balls in the air and we’re trying to determine the best way to deploy the resource,” Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak mentioned on Tuesday whereas declining to debate negotiations with particular gamers. “Today was actually spent making an attempt to get extra granular and perceive what issues appear like. Are we hopeful we are able to do one thing earlier than we depart? We are hopeful, however yesterday I used to be a little bit extra assured than I’m in the mean time. But there’s nonetheless time.”

Contreras, a long-time Cubs rival who’s looking for a long-term contract and a shot to be on one other World Series winner, met with Cardinals leaders lately in Orlando, Fla., the catcher’s offseason residence. Conveniently sufficient, Cardinals supervisor Oliver Marmol spent lots of his adolescence and went to highschool in Orlando, so they’d lots to debate. Marmol got here away impressed with the drive of the fiery free agent.

“It was a good visit, it really was,” Marmol mentioned. “When you put aside the whole lot from a aggressive standpoint and also you’re simply having a dialog, and also you’re studying what motivates and drives him and what he’s in search of, it’s telling.

“Willson is a very good competitor. We talked about loving winning, and this is a guy who loves to win. It’s a guy you don’t want to compete against because you know he’s good. He’s a great competitor, and you respect his game.”

Marmol led the Cardinals to 93 wins and an NL Central crown in his first season as skipper, however in his eyes the season was considerably of a disappointment due to how the veteran-laden group collapsed within the playoffs. The franchise didn’t ship on its said purpose — a twelfth World Series title – largely as a result of the Cardinals’ bats inexplicably went silent in a two-game loss to the Phillies within the Wild Card Series. The sixth-seeded Phillies went on to additionally beat the Braves and Padres and attain the World Series, however that did nothing to appease Marmol’s emotions of failure.

“The way [the question was asked] would infer I’m over it by now, but I don’t think you ever get over it,” Marmol mentioned candidly. “It’s good to not get over it and learn from it. Do you learn from it and put it aside? Absolutely, but it’s something that hopefully eats at all of us a little bit. That’s what winners do; they hate losing.”

Marmol has shared his emotions of bitterness with outfielders Tyler O’Neill and Dylan Carlson, gamers who have been closely counted upon however struggled by means of accidents and sputtering manufacturing. Marmol needs these struggles to drive these outfielders and result in stellar bounce-back rebuttals. Get extra from these high-ceiling gamers — and add a catcher akin to Murphy, Kirk or the confirmed Contreras — and the Cardinals received’t must be so reliant on NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt and star Nolan Arenado.

“You address [the 2022] shortcomings in a couple of ways, and part of that is finding a catcher you can insert into the middle of the lineup,” Marmol mentioned. “But you might be additionally relying on a manufacturing from sure guys. Tyler O’Neill goes to have to provide greater than he produced this yr. He’s going about it in a approach that’s going to provide him one of the best shot. Other guys are taking this offseason very significantly.

“At the end of the day, put very plainly, they are going to have to produce at a higher rate.”