Cards' Contreras to DH, could play OF amid catching shake-up

St. Louis Cardinals manager Oli Marmol announced Saturday that catcher Willson Contreras will be used almost exclusively as a designated hitter in the coming weeks, according to John Denton of MLB.com.

Marmol added that Andrew Knizner will spend the majority of the time behind the plate to make sure Cardinals pitchers are familiar with him. Tres Barrera will act as the backup catcher.

Contreras was caught off guard by the promotion of Barrera to give the team three backstops on the major-league roster.

"It caught me by surprise that Trey was up," Contreras said. "I'm happy for him to be here because he's one of the great guys here. I don't know, I'm probably going to DH more now."

The Cardinals also plan to use Contreras as a corner outfielder, according to Katie Woo of The Athletic.

The three-time All-Star, who joined St. Louis on a five-year, $87.5-million deal during the offseason, has started 25 games in the outfield over his eight-year career. Twenty-one of those starts were at left field during his rookie campaign with the Chicago Cubs in 2016.

Contreras added that he spoke with Cardinals legendary catcher Yadier Molina about what Molina's seen from him behind the plate, according to Lynn Worthy of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The 30-year-old is in the 81st percentile for pop time to second and the 35th percentile for framing, according to Baseball Savant. He has a 2.2 defensive rating entering Saturday's game, per FanGraphs.

"I want to be super clear. We're not losing ballgames because Willson Contreras is behind the plate," Marmol said amid a 10-23 start for the defending NL Central champions.

The skipper added: "This is a guy that's putting in an amazing amount of work to be able to become more familiar with, one, our pitchers, but also how we do things."

The decision was made after Marmol had meetings with Contreras, president of baseball operations John Mozeliak, and pitching coach Dusty Blake, according to Denton.

St. Louis' pitching staff has accrued the eighth-worst fWAR in baseball this season.