Cardinals get a boost with Contreras’ earlier-than-expected return from the IL

There are two things that seem to be universally true about Willson Contreras’s return from a fractured forearm inside the St. Louis Cardinals clubhouse: 1) No one really wanted to see the picture of the inside of his arm taken during surgery, and 2) No one doubted that he would beat all but the most optimistic of projections for when he might return to the field.

The former was seemingly unavoidable, and the latter came true on Monday when the Cardinals activated Contreras from the injured list one day shy of seven weeks after the ulna in his left forearm was broken clean through by a swing from J.D. Martinez of the New York Mets.

Asked when he first thought Contreras might beat the projections, which could have seen him out into July if not through the All-Star game, manager Oli Marmol joked, “when he broke it.”

“He came in with no cast and started doing things a lot sooner than expected,” Marmol added. “Even little things, like strength tests and things like that. His progression off the tee, flips, [batting practice], machine [pitch]. It happened very quickly and he felt good about every stage.”

The day Contreras had his cast removed, he spoke to reporters in the clubhouse and confidently asserted he would return before July.

“It bothered me when a lot of people said that I was going to miss…two or three months,” Contreras said on June 7. “I was like, ‘hell no.’ I like to be challenged. I like challenge, but I have to be thankful with my body because the bone’s already healed. It’s really impressive how that healed.”

With a titanium plate in place in his forearm – there were clubhouse rumblings Monday that Contreras was going by “Wolverine” thanks to his metal-enhanced skeleton – Contreras caught three games and was the designated hitter for three more for Triple-A Memphis last week. He was 3-for-21 with one run batted in on his rehab stint, but Marmol said that Contreras has reported no issues with timing and that he expects him to return at full speed.

“If that was the case, he would’ve kept playing in Memphis,” Marmol said. “He’s not used to rehabbing very long.”

Indeed, the weekend’s transactions seem to validate the club’s patience.

When Iván Herrera came down with a sore lower back after unloading his equipment bag from the team bus at Rickwood Field, the shortcut path would’ve involved simply activating Contreras from the injured list, trading places with Herrera. Instead, a series of transactions were necessary to recall depth catcher Nick Raposo for just two days to back up Pedro Pagés while Contreras put the finishing touches on his comeback.

Pagés caught the team’s last 13 games of Contreras’s stretch on the injured list, owing largely to his skill in handling the pitching staff and limiting threats in the running game. Having watched the ugly video of the injury himself, Pagés offered the assessment that the toughest part of returning for Contreras will be, “mental, for sure.”

“He knows he’ll be safe as long as he keeps his distance,” Pagés added, addressing one of the central challenges of the way catching is practiced in the majors in 2024.

Modern pitch framing measurements give catchers an incentive to scoot up as close to the hitter as possible to snatch a pitch at its highest point and pull it closer to the umpire’s line of sight, trying to steal strikes in the process. Contreras, both the night he was injured and the night a month later when he was cleared for baseball activity, acknowledged that he scooted too close to Martinez in the midst of trying to win an at bat.

Instead, he was lost for seven weeks, though he returned to a team that fought through his absence to record the best record in the National League since Mother’s Day.

Plugged directly into the third spot in the batting order with Nolan Arenado out due to an ailing left forearm and Paul Goldschmidt receiving a scheduled day off, Contreras is still tied for fifth on the team in home runs, with six, despite his missed time. His .950 OPS made him far and away the team’s most productive hitter at the time of his injury.

He remains the only Cardinal this season to date with an OPS higher than .900, and he’s also the only Cardinal with an OPS higher than .800.

“The night it happened,” Alec Burleson said, “I remember him coming in [the clubhouse] and sitting on the couch. It was broken and he had it wrapped up, but I remember him telling me, like, ‘I’m gonna be back sooner than what everybody expects.’

“Just to be able to kind of watch that unfold? He’s different, for sure.”

No one knows that better than his teammates, who as of recent weeks now definitively know Contreras inside and out.