The humiliation of the ‘116 billion’ all-star catcher, why does STL change its position to designated hitter instead of catcher?
- allforyouclick
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- on May 08, 2023
The St. Louis Cardinals will change the position of starting catcher Wilson Contreras, who they acquired as the successor to retired스포츠토토Yadir Molina, to DH and outfielder.
Contreras made his major league debut with the Chicago Cubs in 2016 and was selected as an All-Star three times while playing for the Cubs for seven seasons until last year. He played 626 games and 5017⅔ innings as a catcher for the Cubs.
St. Louis acquired Contreras on a five-year, $87.5 million (approximately 116 billion won) contract to fill the void left by Molina’s retirement last winter.
MLB.com reported on the 7th (hereinafter Korean time) that the St. Louis front desk and coaching staff are converting Contreras into the designated hitter role to ignite the sluggish pitching staff.
The media said, “Contreras will play as the designated hitter for the next few weeks, and Andrew Knisner will play as the starting catcher.” Tress Barrea, who played 51 games in the majors, was called up from Triple-A to back up Knisner.
St. Louis manager Oliver Marmall said, “The decision to change the starting catcher from Contreras to Knisner was decided through several meetings with baseball operations president John Mozeliac, bench coach Joe McEwing, pitching coach Dusty Blake and Contreras.”
It was considered that St. Louis pitchers were familiar with Knisner, who has been playing in St. Louis since the 2019 season, rather than breathing with Contreras, who joined this year.
Manager Mamol said, “I considered familiarity with the pitchers. I think it will help in the situation we are in now (replacing the main catcher). We have to win,” he said. On Contreras, “There is a way we operate, and Contreras is still accepting and learning. It’s hard to come to another team and learn everything. We have an internal strategy to help with everything and we will be moving in that direction over the next few weeks.”
St. Louis is currently on an eight-game losing streak. The team’s ERA is 4.70, which is 10th in the National League, and the starting pitcher’s ERA is 5.44, which is in the bottom of the 13th place. The pitching staff’s batting average after two strikes is .217, the highest. He also allowed 20 home runs in two strikes.
“I came to this team to win, and I personally accepted the loss and felt guilty, so I talked to Molina on video calls for a few days,” Contreras said. “I’m not blaming, I’m not pointing the finger at the pitchers, but we need to execute the pitch better with two strikes.”
Contreras, who has hit more than 20 home runs for the last two years in a row, has a batting average of 2.77, 2 homers, 14 RBIs, and an OPS of .765 as of the 7th. He allowed 12 stolen bases, and recorded 5 stolen bases.