St. Louis Cardinals President of Operations John Mozeliak speaks Wednesday, October 26, 2022 about the return of Adam Wainwright for another season with the team.
That final walk off the field and into the offseason has been longer than usual this season for Adam Wainwright, who had to come all the way from the Busch Stadium bullpen not to throw a pitch in the Cardinals playoff series but to pitch at this time with To spend brooding over why he didn’t.
He couldn’t let those steps be the last ones he left on this ground.
He told manager Oliver Marmol as they approached the clubhouse minutes after Philadelphia’s Wildcard Series win, “I’m not going out like that.”
“It would have left such a bad taste in my mouth,” Wainwright said on Wednesday. “I’ve dissuaded myself from being competitive. And I live to compete. It’s driving me crazy that I pitched so much the last three weeks of the season that I didn’t think about pitching any of those first two games. When I walked in from the bullpen I already had it in mind.”
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Inspired by his frustration, Wainwright agreed to a one-year extension with the Cardinals, which was finalized Wednesday. The deal will bring the three-time All-Star and longtime ace back to the team for a 19th season – and what the 41-year-old right-hander says will be his final season in the majors.
Despite accepting a retirement gift on behalf of Yadier Molina several times this past season, Wainwright purposely didn’t join teammates Molina and Albert Pujols in their preseason retirement announcements. He wasn’t sure and considered the advantage of a quiet exit. As he stood in line to pick up his kids from school on Wednesday, he joked that he may have ruined the Cardinals’ “marketing” by returning after the team orchestrated the trio that left the field in the middle of theirs last regular season at the same time left home game together. But the way he left the field — struggling through September, not seeded in the playoff series — nagged at him.
He’s not sure he wants the “hype” of a final season.
He’s sure he wants a different ending.
“Looking back on it now, it just feels like everything that happened took me back for another year,” Wainwright said. “We still have work to do, you know? If I tell you it’s the last one, do I have to go through a lot of stuff? My main focus when playing this year is to win and help this team win. Anything that distracts from it is undesirable. Yes, this will be the last. Just relax everyone. Let me open. let me go out and perform Don’t freak out about it every day and let’s see what happens.”
St. Louis Cardinals President of Operations John Mozeliak speaks Wednesday, October 26, 2022 about the return of Adam Wainwright for another season with the team.
Wainwright’s contract extension, which will be approximately the $17.5 million he earned in 2022, leaves him as the last active player from the Cardinals’ 2006 and 2011 championship seasons. It also gives the Cardinals a full rotation for 2023, though baseball operations president John Mozeliak stressed Wednesday that he would be shopping for more pitching this winter.
Ever since he scribbled a contract proposal on the back of a napkin to return to the Cardinals after an injury-hit year, Wainwright has been one of the most reliable and long-lived starters in the majors. He was critical to the Cardinals’ success in the truncated 2020 season, navigating the pitching team through a strict series of doubleheads coming out of quarantine. As of 2019, Wainwright is 47-32 with a 3.57 ERA in 105 starts. He is among the leading players in major leagues in innings, ERA and complete games during this period.
And he’s reshaped his entire career – from one cut short by injury to one that will be honored in the Hall of Fame.
With 195 career wins, Wainwright spoke frankly on Wednesday, saying he has three notable numbers in mind. He wants to hit 210 career wins and match the second most all-time by a Cardinals pitcher behind lone legend Bob Gibson and then push three more to tie his friend and Hall of Famer John Smoltz.
“The number I see is 210,” said Wainwright, already second all-time for the Cardinals in strikeouts (2,147). “I just think it’s cool to stand behind Mr. Gibson in everything. The other number I think of is (213). Because one of my biggest competitors in everything else off the field is John Smoltz. He has completed three (40) seasons. So he has me there. I always remind him that I completed a World Series. If I get more than 213, I have a real bragging rights.”
Well, he admitted he spotted a spot for it on the left field wall at Busch Stadium, even after they added the numbers 4 and 5 to the retirement numbers in years to come.
“Fifty is a beautiful number,” Wainwright said. “It puts me under pressure again. I have to win a few games this year.”
Wainwright feels in a better position to do so than in September, when an excellent season went awry and it took him weeks to figure out why. Wainwright had a 2.50 ERA in six starts in August and hit nearly as many (31) as he conceded hits (33) in 39⅔ innings. In September, his ERA swelled to 7.22 in six starts and he was allowing 56 baserunners in 28⅔ innings. Losing his last three starts, he carved his way out of the Cardinals’ postseason plans and into that long road from the bullpen. Wainwright initially diagnosed his problem as a “dead arm,” but subsequent review of videos and working in front of a mirror and bullpen revealed the problem was his crotch.
Its lead foot came 8 to 12 inches from its usual landing point and this shortened its extension, sacrificing its throwing distance, crispness and familiar movement. Taking the blame for not raising the issue sooner, he said he didn’t maintain his practice of checking videos of his delivery click-by-click in the final weeks of the season. Mozeliak said the team was apparently happy with Wainwright’s conclusion and his proposed fix of signing him for another season.
A Wainwright isn’t sure he wants to market it that way.
As he said an unidentified teammate texted him that he “deserved the fanfare” his colleagues received.
“What I’ve been told by players, fans and family is that I need to enjoy and soak that up,” Wainwright said. “For me, if I went out and put up 33 games and then six or seven more in the postseason and we win the World Series and I had to say on the stage – the World Series stage – if I had to say, ‘Good to know She. See you all later.” That would be the way to do it for me.”
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