Are Cardinals close to inking Contreras? Mo and Marmol at home of former Cubs catcher

I’m out of good catcher jokes.

Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak and manager Oliver Marmol met recently with free agent catcher Willson Contreras at his home in Florida and left that meeting with positive impressions about the catcher’s competitiveness and potential fit in the middle of the St. Louis lineup.

A continent away, as the second day of the Winter Meetings wound down, it was difficult to determine whether that meeting represented the closest the club has yet come in their search for a new starting backstop.

“Are we hopeful that we can do something before we leave? We are hopeful,” Mozeliak said Tuesday night from the team’s suite. “But yesterday, I was probably a little more confident than maybe I am at the moment. But, you know, there’s still time.”

That meeting with Contreras was confirmed by Marmol earlier in the day as he described the Cardinals duo spending “a decent amount of time” with Contreras and his representation.

Marmol described, “just having conversations with him, learning what kind of drives him, what motivates him, and what he’s looking for moving forward. It’s telling.”

Mozeliak, who traditionally does not comment on individual free agents, drolly declined to confirm his own attendance, but added, “I think when you meet players, you’re just trying to get to know them.

“You’re trying to understand their expectations for themselves and for the team, and then you’re also trying to explain the team’s expectations in those meetings. And so if you approach it with those three goals in mind, you do come out of that with some better understanding of what both parties are looking for.”

That process is amplified by the familiarity Cardinals and Contreras share with each other. Only the Milwaukee Brewers, and by the slimmest of margins, have seen Contreras more frequently as an opponent since his 2016 debut, and his reconnaissance on St. Louis began well before the season concluded.

For Oakland’s Sean Murphy, the team’s top trade target, that familiarity doesn’t exist. The Cardinals are one of five teams against whom he has never appeared, and there are no casual, exploratory visits possible to the home of a player under contract with another team.

Mozeliak offered some insight into the team’s process of comparing players under those circumstances.

“The due diligence you use is your player to player,” he said. “People who have been with each other in the past, coaches, et cetera. But no, it’s definitely different than a face to face interview.”

The cost is different as well. Contreras costs only money, as well as the value of the draft pick the Cardinals would lose as a result of signing a player who received a qualifying offer. Murphy costs players, and while the internal processes for every major league team endeavor to put a dollar value on the contributions from individuals, the science is not exact.

“I think we are getting to a point where we are getting close to the understanding of what all this looks like, and how it’s done,” Mozeliak said.

One thing the Cardinals did indeed get done late Tuesday was supplementing their pitching depth. Righty Guillermo Zuniga, a 24-year-old from Colombia who has yet to pitch at a level higher than Double-A was signed to a Major League contract.

More about Zuniga

Zuniga posted 115 strikeouts over 90 innings in the last two seasons for the Tulsa Drillers in the Los Angeles Dodgers system. The Cardinals, who have been explicit in their desire to add swing and miss characteristics to their bullpen, have sought depth such as Zuniga from whom they could see further development.

With empty spots on the 40-man roster ahead of Wednesday’s Rule 5 draft, Zuniga also represents an opportunity to gamble on a project pitcher without the restrictions around minor league assignments that come attached to players acquired via that method.

A minor league relief pitcher, however, does represent not an inflection point. The Cardinals have made abundantly clear that their first, second and third priorities are securing their future behind the plate; Marmol dryly made the point that the club is, by rule, required to have someone there to catch pitches on opening day, and they intend to meet that requirement.

‘You can be aggressive’

What seemed at the start of the meetings to be a clear ordered preferencing of Murphy ahead of Contreras has not taken on an air of uncertainty, either due to a shifting market or due to the club’s desire to create the perception of one. The reluctant public comments on Contreras nonetheless represent a break with precedent, and team officials have been open about their desire to see the process to an end.

There is no one in the Cardinals’ orbit who does not understand that a decision is on the immediate horizon.

“You can be aggressive, identify exactly what you want,” Mozeliak said. “It’s hard if it’s apples and oranges. It’s easier if it’s apples to apples. We’re trying to take our time and try to get it right.”