Cardinals, Astros amongst 3 groups with gives to Willson Contreras

SAN DIEGO — Might Cubs followers worst nightmare come true in the case of Willson Contreras’ touchdown spot in free company?

The reply may come as quickly as this week — maybe inside hours of at any time when the A’s lastly shut a deal on a commerce of their extensively coveted Gold Glove catcher, Sean Murphy.

That’s as a result of the marketplace for Cubs free agent Willson Contreras has heated up sufficient this week on the Winter Conferences that the All-Star catcher has obtained multiyear, preliminary gives from three groups, together with the Cardinals and Astros, a number of sources stated Tuesday.

It was not instantly clear who the third group is (though sources indicated neither the Purple Sox nor the Rays).

“There’s a pair guys that’d be a great match, and it’s a matter of us taking a step again and ensuring we get it proper,” stated Cardinals supervisor Oliver Marmol, who joined Playing cards president John Mozeliak in a gathering with Contreras and his brokers final week close to Contreras’ dwelling in Orlando, Florida.

“However Willson is an excellent competitor,” Marmol added. “This can be a man that likes to win, who wakes up excited about it and goes to sleep excited about it. We’ve seen him fairly a bit throughout the way in which, and it’s a man you don’t need to compete in opposition to as a result of you already know he’s fairly good.

“He’s a fantastic competitor and we respect his recreation.”

Contreras to the Cardinals? Yikes.

 

All three groups within the bidding for Contreras are linked to the Murphy commerce sweepstakes. Not one of the free agent gives being mentioned exceed 4 years. However when Murphy lands — to the Rays? — one supply expects the give attention to Contreras to accentuate. That would imply the possibility to leverage a suggestion of 5 or extra years.

Astros supervisor Dusty Baker and different Astros officers met with Contreras’ brokers on Monday in San Diego.

Baker, whose enter helped nixed an in any other case carried out deal for Contreras on the commerce deadline in August, stated Monday he likes Contreras and downplayed his enter on the deadline, calling it extra a timing challenge for the three-time All-Star than anything.

“[This is] simply perhaps a postponement, who is aware of?” Baker stated.

RELATED: Baker: Astros’ nixed Contreras deal may be mere ‘postponement’

The Cardinals have probably the most symbolic, if not probably the most pressing, want on the place as they appear to backfill for retiring, Corridor of Fame-bound Yadi Molina.

“We all know we’re not going to interchange Yadi,” Mozeliak stated throughout final month’s Normal Managers Conferences. “He was a defensive savant. However we don’t need to take an enormous step again defensively as a result of our group is centered round protection.

“And the opposite factor that form of goes unseen,” he added, “is that Yadi was so good on serving to with recreation prep, recreation technique, clearly in-game selections with the pitcher. His baseball IQ was unimaginable.

“How do you backfill for that or change it? That’s one thing internally we’ve got to work by.”

That was an enormous a part of assembly face-to-face with Contreras final week.

“It was a great go to; it actually was,” Marmol stated. “Whenever you put aside every thing from a aggressive [perspective], seeing him from throughout the way in which, and also you’re simply having a dialog with him and what drives him and what motivates him and what he’s searching for shifting ahead, it’s telling. We loved our go to.”

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