Goodbye one last time, Willson

We don't deserve this, but the Cubs sure do. Plus Pat Hughes is a Hall of Famer!

Cubs fans will get one last chance to give Willson Contreras a standing ovation on Monday, May 8 when he makes his debut at Wrigley Field for his new team, the St. Louis Cardinals. Well, unless he’s suffered his annual hamstring injury early, but he could probably hobble to the top of the dugout steps or something.

Contreras finally found a team that wasn’t hell bent on fucking him over with his contract and signed a five-year deal worth $85.7 million. Would he have gotten more if the Cubs had actually traded him at the deadline, instead of holding on to him so they could get a precious “sandwich” compensation pick after the second round of next year’s draft? Of course he would have.

So as much as it might suck for the fans to see one of their favorite Cubs go play for that shitbag franchise, the Cubs have nobody to blame but themselves. Given the dearth of catching talent in the big leagues there was no sane reason not to extend Willson years ago. Instead, the Cubs vaunted pitching infrastructure bad mouthed Willson’s pitch framing and game calling to their usual media suspects who still act like those guys actually know what they’re doing. Maybe the goal was to drive Willson’s price down so they could keep him at a bargain, but more likely, those guys are just assholes.