The St. Louis Cardinals have found themselves in the news for all the wrong reasons over the past several weeks.
An eight-game losing skid knocked them to the bottom of the National League and seemingly buried them in the race for the NL Central title.
On top of that, they have decided to move new catcher Willson Contreras to the designated hitter position full-time, almost as if to use him as a scapegoat for their struggles.
However, there is one player in particular who made sure to let Contreras know how much he was appreciated in St. Louis.
Veteran right-hander Adam Wainwright recently met with Contreras and spoke with the media about that meeting, voicing his support for the team’s new slugger.
#STLCards RHP Adam Wainwright on meeting with Willson Contreras: “What we did was we sat down yesterday and just poured into him. 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.”
— John Denton (@JohnDenton555) May 8, 2023
Clearly, Wainwright is in the right frame of mind and does not believe that Contreras is the reason that the Cardinals are struggling as badly as they have been.
The veteran right-hander has yet to pitch to Contreras in regular season play, with Andrew Knizner being behind the plate for his season debut against the Detroit Tigers.
Wainwright also noted that he’s glad to have Contreras on the team, but that he isn’t sure Contreras has heard it from anybody else, which suggests that there could be a rift within the organization, specifically in the clubhouse.
But the two-time World Series champion has been around long enough to have established himself as a leader in the clubhouse, and this positive reinforcement is certainly good for Contreras to hear in the midst of this situation.
NEXT: Cardinals Manager Defends The Willson Contreras Decision
