St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras had a lot on his mind when asked about the possibility of a trade after the team was eliminated from postseason contention.
The 33-year-old made it clear that he is willing to stay with the young Cardinals after he agreed to change positions to make room for young catchers Ivan Herrera and Pedro Pages.
“I’d like to be a part of a young team that needs to have some kind of experience around them,” Contreras said, via Jeff Jones of Cardinals.com. “That’s what I expressed, but I understand the part of the business of the team, and we just came to an agreement there.”
Contreras has a no-trade clause on his deal, which runs until the end of the 2027 season, and has been unwilling to waive it so far, but he has softened his stance on doing so since having a meeting with incoming president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom. Still, he would rather stay in St. Louis and help guide this team back to contention before all else.
“I like challenges,” he explained. “I know that the St. Louis Cardinals have a really good track record of being a winning team. I know that right now we’re not having a really good team — or we’re not having a winning team — but I’d just like to be a part of the process.
“I understand that it might take three to five years to have a playoff team or a team that can contend to the World Series, and I said even if I don’t make it there, and you guys make it to a World Series, I feel like I can be proud of that, just because I want to help young guys to better develop and have a better idea of what baseball is besides going to analyze stats.”
Contreras hit 20 home runs and drove in 80 runs for the Cardinals in 135 games before sustaining a bicep injury. He will have two more seasons remaining on the contract he signed as a free agent in 2023 heading into next season.
