Willson Contreras Could Be Shopped
3 years agoThe Chicago Cubs will likely try to work out a contract extension with catcher Willson Contreras, who can become a free agent a year from now. However, if a deal can't be reached, president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer "will almost certainly shop" the 29-year-old backstop. Contreras was worth 2.1 Wins Above Replacement in 2021, according to FanGraphs, which was 12th among all catchers. But only five catchers have had a better WAR than Contreras since he made his major league debut in 2016. If the Cubs keep him around for the long term, they'd like to get him more help behind the plate, as they think he wore down offensively from playing so much. Only seven catchers have logged more innings than Contreras behind the dish since 2016, and only two of them (Yasmani Grandal and Buster Posey) have a better wRC+ than his 114.
Source: The Athletic - Sahadev Sharma
Source: The Athletic - Sahadev Sharma