Mar 29, 2025; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras (40) breaks his bat as he grounds out against the Minnesota Twins during the first inning at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images | Jeff Curry-Imagn Images
The offense of the St. Louis Cardinals has been dynamic to begin the 2025 season. The team is hitting at a collective .297 average, which is tops in the major leagues. But one of the favorites to have a career year has yet to get off the schneid in the batter’s box.
Willson Contreras has only 4 hits in 43 at-bats so far on the season, which is good for an average of .093. Cardinals color commentator Brad Thompson has mentioned on broadcasts that Contreras is having issues seeing pitches that are breaking away from him, and indeed, he has missed 47.2% of breaking balls that he has offered at.
The Cardinals moved Contreras out from behind the plate to the less taxing position of first base this season, and the fact that he would no longer have to focus on the rigors of catching, plus his more toned physique entering the season, led him to be a pick to click for many Redbird Rants writers.
How will the Cardinals handle Contreras if these problems continue?
The Cardinals showed in 2023 that they were willing to take drastic action on Contreras after he didn’t live up to expectations behind the plate, placing him as a full-time designated hitter just a month into the season before returning him to his familiar spot behind the plate a week later. The Cardinals’ previous actions suggest that they’re not averse to yanking Contreras around, so it might not be out of the question to see them take some sort of action again, whether it be simply placing him lower in the lineup or giving him more frequent rest days.
First base is crowded in St. Louis, as Alec Burleson and Luken Baker are also on the major league roster. If the Cardinals are serious about their “retool.” they would provide more reps at the cold corner and designated hitter for Burleson and Baker in lieu of Contreras, but the fact is that the contract plays. The Cardinals gave Contreras an $87.5 million contract that has two years remaining on it after this season, with a club option for 2028, and they will want to get as much out of that contract as they can. Expect Contreras to continue spending time at first base regardless of his performance.
But even if Contreras receiving more playing time isn’t the best course of action for a team that supposedly wants to see its younger core step up, it’s too early in the season to assume that these problems will persist. With so much of the season remaining, struggling players will have their issues magnified because there is nothing to look back on that could alleviate fans’ concerns that the player will be in for a subpar season, whereas if he had shown solid production earlier, fans would be more likely to realize that the player is merely in a dry spell. Cardinals fans are already seeing this phenomenon with Masyn Winn, who also had a sluggish start to the season before a 9-for-17 stretch.
Contreras should soon find his stroke, and in the off chance that he doesn’t, the Cardinals have plenty of other options in a season where winning was seen as secondary to player development.
