It’s abundantly clear the 2018 season took its toll on Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras. A feel-good first half resulted in his first-ever All-Star appearance, seemingly headed toward another strong campaign.
The Cubs never made a big deal out of only having one catcher behind Contreras in Victor Caratini, and, for the first half, it didn’t matter because the former played so well. However, when the second half came around, we started to see how important having a solid backup catcher really is. The second half showed us why the Cubs need to place a higher importance on adding a strong backup to Contreras this offseason.