The St. Louis Cardinals' 2023 season has been messy to say the least. They are clearly underperforming, but there's also been drama. Cardinals' manager Oliver Marmol called out Tyler O'Neill for not hustling early in the season. Most recently, St. Louis made the decision to have Willson Contreras, their prized free agent signing this past offseason, move from catcher to DH/outfield. Veteran starting pitcher Adam Wainwright revealed St. Louis' message to Contreras during a recent meeting, per John Denton.

“What we did was we sat down yesterday and just poured into him (Contreras),” Wainwright said. “We love this guy. We're glad he's here and we want him to be our guy. I think he took it well. Honestly, I don't know if anyone's ever told him that. But he's appreciated. We love him and we're glad he's here. We're glad he's part of our team and I think he's gonna be a huge force for us going forward.”

Adam Wainwright demonstrated his impressive leadership ability with this message to Contreras. Finding success with a new team is difficult enough, and doing so while changing positions is obviously quite the challenge and Wainwright seems to fully understand that.

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The Cardinals certainly aren't giving up on Contreras, at least from an offensive standpoint. Defensively, however, St. Louis is seemingly moving on. Contreras, who emerged as one of the best catchers in baseball during his tenure with the Chicago Cubs, is expected to switch positions barring a late-change of decision by St. Louis.

For now, Contreras is focused on performing well against his former team on Monday, as the Cardinals play the Cubs at Wrigley Field.