Chicago Cubs' Contreras looking to regain championship form
Chicago Cubs manager Joe Maddon is never shy about voicing his opinion that Willson Contreras is the best catcher in the National League.
There are times when Contreras shows flashes of being the best.
Then there are other times, such as the second half of last season, when he put up a line of .200/.291/.294. That represented a drop in OPS from .818 before the all-star break to .585 after the break.
When it was all said in done, Contreras wound up third in wins above replacement, at 2.6, behind leader J.T. Realmuto (4.8) and Yasmani Grandal (3.6)
To his credit, Contreras came to spring training in good shape and seemingly determined to get back to the exciting and effective player he was in the world-championship season of 2016 and in 2017. He got off to a good start in the Cactus League, with 2 homers in his first 3 games.
“Last year, I was late on a lot of pitches,” he told the media in Mesa. “It was just timing,”
Contreras made the all-star team last year based on his strong first half. Perhaps fatigue played a part in his second-half swoon. Contreras caught 1,109⅔ innings last year, the most in the majors.
“The second half of last year was the anomaly moment,” Maddon said. “I don't think you saw a great representation of him or anywhere near what he is. We got to get beyond that, and I think we will.
“You give him a day off, and he's upset he's getting a day off. I really don't think it was a fatigue factor although you can argue when a guy doesn't hit that he probably is a little tired. I think more of his tiredness would be more mental than it was physical.”
Contreras came up in June 2016 and homered on the first major-league pitch he saw. He was a key member of the Cubs' run to their first World Series championship since 1908.
Defensively, Contreras is working on his pitch-framing this spring to get hit pitchers a few more close pitches called strikes. He threw out 18 of 70 baserunners attempted to steal last year.
Maddon said he sees a player who is far from satisfied.
“I also believe he's an ‘all I want to do is win' guy,” the manager said. “There's no question with Willson. Willson, his passion on a nightly basis, is to win. I believe that. He's far beyond, ‘I belong here, I can do this.' He past all that. He is so intent on helping us win. I think a lot of the emotional discharge you see is just the fact that he feels as though he's let us down because his motivation is to win.”
The backup to Contreras is Victor Caratini, who has 107 games of major-league experience with a hitting line of .238/.303/.317.
“I've got to get Victor out there, too,” Maddon said. “When you've got a guy like Victor on the team, we're trying to develop him, also. We feel good about him. Sometimes you don't feel good about putting your backup out there. I feel really good about it.”