Bleacher Bums Forum

From the Cardinal blather machine:  When the Cardinals recently moved prized free-agent acquisition Willson Contreras out of the catching position, the fiery veteran could have reacted with disgust and made an already bad situation worse. Instead, the 31-year-old Contreras never sulked, felt sorry for himself and made a major issue out of having his primary position taken away from him, while the Cardinals worked to steady their starting staff.

That professionalism from the three-time All-Star starter certainly didn’t go unnoticed by manager Oliver Marmol, who reinstated Contreras to the catching position on Monday to work with Jack Flaherty. Before Contreras caught for Matthew Liberatore on Wednesday, Contreras said he spent a few hours watching video of the 6-foot-4 left-hander late Tuesday to ready himself.

 

Again, the Cardinals have marveled at the preparation and preparedness of their new backstop -- even in the face of him having his position unceremoniously taken away from him for a stretch.

“He was unbelievable,” Marmol raved. “You’re talking about an extremely humble dude, who took everything in stride and saw [his catching removal] as an opportunity. It wasn’t always ideal, but one thing he did was he communicated well. It was really impressive. I couldn’t be more proud of the way he handled it.”