Cardinals catcher Willson Contreras underwent surgery to stabilize the fracture in his forearm on Wednesday of this week. Manager Oli Marmol tells the Cardinals beat that the surgery went as expected, and Contreras is expected to miss around 10 weeks of action. He’s hopeful of returning shortly before the All-Star break (via John Denton of MLB.com and Katie Woo of The Athletic on X). Contreras suffered the fracture this week when Mets designated hitter J.D. Martinez struck his left forearm during a swing.
Subtracting Contreras from an already struggling Cardinals lineup is a gut-punch. Veteran stars Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado have both underperformed this season (the former, in particular), while injuries have kept Tommy Edman off the field entirely and limited Lars Nootbaar’s time on the field (and arguably his productivity as well).
The Cards are batting just .217/.296/.339 as a team. They rank 29th in the majors in home runs (27), 29th in runs (127), 28th in batting average, 27th in on-base percentage and are tied with the Marlins for 27th in slugging percentage. As longtime Cardinals reporter and St. Louis radio host Bernie Miklasz points out on X, the trio of Goldschmidt, Nolan Gorman and Dylan Carlson have astonishingly combined to go 0-for-48 since the calendar flipped to May.
Were it not for an eye-popping start to the season from Contreras, those team totals and rankings would be far worse. He’s been far and away the team’s best hitter, batting .280/.398/.551 with six homers in 128 plate appearances. Contreras’ six homers lead the club, and he’s also pacing the team in doubles (11), walks (18) and wRC+ (171).
In his absence, the Cardinals will turn catching duties over to the tandem of Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages. Herrera has long been a touted catching prospect who looked ready for an audition as a big league regular, but between iron man Yadier Molina and the team’s signing of Contreras, that opportunity hadn’t presented itself — until now. The 23-year-old is out to a slow start in 76 plate appearances this year, hitting just .232/.276/.377. However, he slashed .297/.409/.351 in 13 games with the Cards last year in addition to posting a huge .297/.451/.500 line (147 wRC+) in 83 Triple-A contests (375 plate appearances).
Pages made his big league debut this month. He’s appeared in six games but has just eight plate appearances and has yet to log his first major league hit. The 2019 sixth-round pick is considered a glove-first catching prospect but did post a quality .267/.362/.443 slash (142 wRC+) in 497 Double-A plate appearances last season. He was 4-for-18 with a homer and two doubles in Triple-A prior to his call to the big leagues.
The 15-22 Cardinals have lost five straight games and eight of their last ten. Their -41 run differential ranks 25th in the majors and 12th in the National League.
That’s what you get for trying to catch the ball before it crosses the plate.
Rumor is Marmol insists
I’ve been on team “pitch framing is dumb” for the longest time. It’s a necessary evil in today’s game, but it’s so dumb. Give robot umps please.
Correct mo!!!! There is no way that whatever ‘imperfections’ there MIGHT BE, with robo umps – that they could possibly be worse than human umpiring is, in today’s game.
Consistency is the main thing, that I believe both hitters and pitchers want.
Calling balls and strikes consistently, is not something you can rely on from batter to batter.
I can see the headline now. “ESPN indicted over robot ump hacking for a Yankees Red Sox World Series”
Contreras was one of the very few guys that was actually playing well. But even with him playing well the team wasn’t any good. No sense in being average if you are gonna lose might as well lose a lot and that seems where the team is headed.
This news will send the average Cards fan to the floor sobbing uncontrollably and inconsolable. Marmol, on the other hand, is suffering from a different kind of regret: “Why couldn’t this have happened last year to spare me the egg on my face for that unnecessary move I made for no good reason?”
Marmol is a complete fool. Even this year when asked about the situation Marmol said Contreras had learned a lot as if he’s some dude straight out of the minors. Marmol is a moron and he will be fired soon he has to be.
It doesn’t matter. He’s not making diddly squat.
Speedy recovery WC!
They’re done. With Goldy, Arenado, Noot, Donovan, Gorman, and Walker not hitting, they’re on target for another last place season.
You’d think at some point ownership would move on from Mozeliak.
It’s clear his plan for revival this year failed. It was reasonable to expect this team could hit because the list I posted above had a high ceiling, but its astonishing how poorly they’ve all performed.
They have competition for last place with the lackluster performances by the Pirates offense
Skenes is coming.
The Pirates will treat Skenes initially with kid gloves as they understandably did with him averaging 4 IP per start in AAA.
That’s what you get for putting your hand in the cookie jar.
What, Scrap Iron???
Please fire Mo and Marmol.
Don’t let this freak injury delay the inevitable thing that must happen.
DeWitt needs to stop acting like Reinsdorf. Loyalty should never trump results.
This team needs a breath of fresh air. Bloom is not the answer.
The speed of a 21 year old Billy Hamilton combined with the defense of a 25 year old Kevin Kiermaier combined with the power of a 28 year old Albert Pujols combined with the hustle of a 30 year old Peter Rose.
Mookie Betts?
mookie betts Isn’t even close.
Pete Incaviglia??
Willie Mays? Eric Davis? Bo Jackson?
Will mays Hayes?
Does not exist in MLB today.
And certainly not on the Cardinals!
As bad as the Cardinals have stunk, they’re still in it for a wild card. A little improvement in the offense could actually get them to the postseason. The pitching has been about NL-average with a 4.08 staff ERA.
And another first round exit.
They said that about the D-Backs. And the Rangers, for that matter. Crapshoot and all that.
It does seem weird but just a couple hitters getting hot could put the Cardinals right into the wild card race. They’re only 3.5 games out now, despite the woeful offense.
Of course, everybody in the NL is in the race except for the Marlins and Rockies. Lots of company.
It’s obvious that the Muppet Marmol is not a good manager , he’s at it again calling out players in the media, he has to go. He’s constantly changing the line up , without any results. He’s F’ ing clueless.
Well, the players deserve to be called out. They have all underperformed except for a few soon-to-be-washed-up starting pitchers.
They need to make a blockbuster trade to shake the team up and start the rebuild of the team it is hard for me to watch this team they totally suck they always find a way to lose the game