IN CREPT WILLSON CONTRERAS, nearer and nearer to house plate, to the purpose that it began alarming his St. Louis Cardinals teammates. Contreras is in his first season as a primary baseman, and even when the state of affairs referred to as for him to crash towards the plate — eighth inning, 1-0 lead, runners on first and second with no outs and Kansas Metropolis’s Jonathan India squaring to bunt on the primary two pitches — Contreras stationed himself 51 toes away, like a bunt scarecrow, as if to ask a swing from somebody who routinely hits baseballs greater than 100 mph.
“Scoot again a little bit,” Cardinals third baseman Nolan Arenado hollered throughout the diamond. Cardinals coaches urged Contreras to do the identical. He didn’t oblige their requests.
“I used to be afraid [India] was going to take a swing and kill him,” Cardinals starter Miles Mikolas mentioned.
None of this stunned the Cardinals. Contreras has embodied the workforce’s defense-first mentality — adopted final yr and actualized this season — that flipped the fortunes of a franchise fallen on exhausting instances after many years of unrelenting excellence. St. Louis is 27-23, at present in second place within the Nationwide League Central and firmly within the postseason hunt throughout what was imagined to be a transitional yr, due to maybe the perfect protection in baseball. And Contreras’ positioning, as a lot as any second over the primary quarter of the season, illustrated who the Cardinals have turn into.
“I do not care. I am not afraid,” Contreras mentioned. “If I am gonna die, I will die proper there.”
With Contreras perilously shut — the one first baseman within the player-tracking period to face nearer to house on a bunt try, in response to Statcast, was Contreras’ previous Chicago Cubs teammate Anthony Rizzo — India backed away from bunting and took a strike from reliever Kyle Leahy. Contreras did not budge. India stared at one other pitch to even the rely. On the fifth pitch, India hit a one-hopper to second baseman Brendan Donovan, who flipped to shortstop Masyn Winn for the power. Winn then wheeled round, ran towards third and fired to 3rd baseman Nolan Arenado to chop down Drew Waters, turning a dangerous state of affairs into two outs.
None of it occurs, Cardinals gamers and coaches mentioned, with out Contreras’ daring. “He is a savage,” left fielder Lars Nootbaar mentioned, and that may be repeated for each Cardinal across the diamond this season, from an infield of Arenado, Winn, Donovan and Contreras to Nootbaar, Victor Scott and Jordan Walker within the outfield to Pedro Pages behind the plate. All have been common or higher. Arenado, Winn, Contreras and Scott are among the many greatest in baseball at their positions, in response to publicly obtainable metrics in addition to the fashions of three different groups surveyed by ESPN that validated the numbers. And as was the case within the Could 17 recreation that ended with a 1-0 win in Kansas Metropolis and lots extra, the Cardinals’ gloves have carried them into competition.
“Guys needed to take a ton of satisfaction of their protection,” supervisor Oliver Marmol mentioned. “Once we take a look at what we will management this yr, we knew we had been going to have our ups and downs, however we will management the trouble and being locked in each pitch. And that is one factor I can say with confidence: We do not hand over an entire lot. Guys are making performs left and proper. They’re on level. They’re locked in each pitch.”
COMING INTO SPRING TRAINING, the Cardinals appeared scarcely totally different than the 83-79 workforce that was outscored by 47 runs a season in the past. They signed one free agent: reliever Phil Maton, on a one-year, $2 million contract, in mid-March. They did not make any trades. Cardinals followers, among the many recreation’s most die-hard, responded accordingly: attendance at Busch Stadium cratered by greater than 7,000 a recreation to twenty-eight,464, the bottom common, exterior of the 2021 season performed beneath some pandemic restrictions, since after the strike in 1995.
Followers couldn’t have recognized what they might be lacking. Not even Cardinals gamers themselves may have foreseen this group into a continuing spotlight reel of glovework.
“Early on, we did not speak about protection,” Arenado mentioned. “It was: ‘We have got to attain runs. We do not rating runs.’ In order that’s all we had been speaking about. However then as spring went on, we’re like, all proper, our protection is definitely type of good. After which because the season has gone on, it has been like, rattling, dude, we’re actually good defensively.”
How the Cardinals turned arguably the game’s greatest defensive workforce is a narrative of course of and buy-in. For many years, the Cardinal Approach — the workforce’s ethos, codified in an 86-page handbook — was their bible. In a recreation dominated by goal information, St. Louis’ philosophy grew stale — and the franchise with it. President of baseball operations John Mozeliak is in his final yr on the job, with former Boston chief baseball officer Chaim Bloom taking up at season’s finish. Clear protection, lengthy an indicator, bottomed out in 2023, when the Cardinals ranked among the many worst in baseball. Their pre-pitch positioning, specifically, lagged severely behind extra analytically inclined organizations.
“We type of as a workforce knew we weren’t in the best positions in ’23, however you need to go primarily based off of no matter [the positioning suggestions given to players] says,” Nootbaar mentioned. “So we did that final yr, and it did not really feel as unhealthy, however you actually felt a stark distinction from being the place it felt such as you had been by no means in opportunistic positions. Now it looks like we’re beginning to get there.”
Positioning is only the start. With former large leaguers Stubby Clapp teaching the infield and Jon Jay the outfield, gamers got particular areas to enhance. For Scott, who was taking up in middle discipline from a top-flight defender in Mike Siani, he wanted a greater first step and route to enrich his high-end velocity. Nootbaar deliberate to work on his jumps. Walker, who was among the many recreation’s worst defenders the previous two seasons after transferring from third base to proper, wanted to get higher in all aspects.
Throughout spring coaching, Jay set three cones in a triangle, cued gamers to interrupt towards one and tossed a racquetball at them. The outfielders would then break towards one other cone and catch one other ball, which required gentle palms due to the racquetball’s bounciness. He inspired outfielders to station themselves low, with knees bent, which ensured their engagement in each pitch, a Marmol should.
“It is so exhausting to lock in each single pitch, and you do not know which one’s going to be the one that’s coming your method,” Marmol mentioned. “So your potential to be mentally powerful sufficient to do this often results in consideration to element in different areas.”
The brand new strategy has paid off. Scott is close to the highest of leaderboards in publicly obtainable defensive metrics. Nootbaar, Cardinals gamers and workers mentioned, is enjoying the perfect protection of his profession, along with his first step a tenth of a second sooner than final yr, one thing he attributes to specializing in shagging balls throughout batting follow. Walker has acquitted himself nicely sufficient to earn reward from scouts, who had him pegged as a misplaced trigger in proper.
And the enhancements transcend St. Louis’ outfielders. Contreras has equally stunned evaluators, who had been uncertain how he would fare at first after beginning simply 4 video games there in his earlier 9 main league seasons, nearly all of which he spent at catcher. With catching duties going to Pagés and 24-year-old Ivan Herrera, whose bat has been a revelation, Contreras’ shift to first to interchange four-time Gold Glove winner Paul Goldschmidt was a threat the Cardinals wanted to take. And it has rewarded them handsomely.
“He may be the most effective first basemen I’ve ever seen,” Mikolas mentioned. “I knew he’d be bodying it up, and I knew he’d be selecting it, however his vary and his arm — he is doing one thing particular there at first base. I feel he is shocking lots of people. Most likely not himself. He is aware of how good he’s.”
It has been matched all through the infield. Donovan, a 28-year-old utilityman, has settled into second and leads the NL in hits. Winn, whose weak point going to his backhand aspect was mitigated by an arm that charges among the many greatest within the recreation, improved his first step and is attending to extra balls than ever. At 34, Arenado — a 10-time Gold Glove winner who’s considered maybe the perfect defensive third baseman ever — is transferring higher than in current seasons and searching ageless within the discipline.
“I do not wish to get forward of myself,” Arenado mentioned, “however I do not see a protection that is higher than us — up to now that we performed towards — within the large leagues.”
IN BASEBALL, DEFENSE doesn’t win championships. Generally it does not even get a workforce to the postseason. Not one of the No. 1 defensive groups this decade has made a World Collection, not to mention gained one. However many of the high models are on the very least profitable, and if that pattern continues, the Cardinals will face some of the attention-grabbing Julys within the sport.
Coming into the season, the expectation was that St. Louis can be among the many most lively groups in transferring gamers on the commerce deadline. Nearer Ryan Helsley is the kind of arm each contender covets. A number of groups seen as sensible with dealing with pitchers deliberate to focus on left-hander Steven Matz, who has excelled out of the bullpen. Proper-hander Sonny Grey stays a high-strikeout, low-walk, playoff-caliber arm. Fellow right-handed starter Erick Fedde is strong, even along with his lack of strikeouts, and has allowed solely three house runs in 52⅓ innings. Maton has a 133 ERA+ this season and has pitched in 4 of the previous 5 postseasons.
If the Cardinals spend the subsequent two months enjoying like they’ve the primary seven weeks, the prospect of them transport off their greatest arms diminishes tremendously. As a result of if anybody is aware of how a workforce can again into October and discover magic, it is the Cardinals, who turned an 83-78 common season in 2006 into their 10th championship and a 90-win wild-card marketing campaign into their eleventh title 5 years later.
“I imply, quite a lot of us are nonetheless type of rising,” Donovan mentioned. “We have had the posh of seeing folks do it for a very long time with the Cardinals and across the league, so I feel it is guys simply type of studying come into their very own.”
Marmol has relished the expansion. Now in his fourth season as supervisor, he has amalgamated gamers round a brand new identification of focus and construction — tenets that evoke the Cardinal Approach, solely modernized. Earlier than the Contreras daredevil recreation, he invited various gamers into his workplace to provide them concrete information on simply how a lot that they had improved defensively, the kind of suggestions trendy gamers significantly recognize due to the target nature. Gone are the unhealthy vibes from a 12-17 begin, changed by a workforce that discovered its footing in sequence wins towards the New York Mets, Pittsburgh, Washington, Philadelphia and Kansas Metropolis earlier than shedding a sequence of shut video games towards the workforce with the perfect document in MLB, Detroit.
“The buy-in has been by way of the roof,” Marmol mentioned. “After which after they can see the advance in numbers, nevertheless many days in, it simply reinforces: do not let up.”
