Cardinals right-hander Adam Wainwright spoke with the media today, including Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, on the heels of the announcement that he and the club had agreed to a contract for 2023. In discussing the deal, Wainwright admitted that 2023 will be his final season.
“I could tell you yes, but then there’s a whole lot of hoopla you’ve gotta go through,” Wainwright said in response to a question about whether this would be his final run. “Long story short: yes, this’ll be the last one. Just everybody relax, don’t freak out about it.”
Prior to 2022, fellow Cardinal legends Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols announced that they were entering their final respective seasons. There was plenty of speculation that Wainwright might eventually decide to ride into the sunset with them, but he has instead decided to mount up for another campaign, which will evidently be his last. Wainwright turned 41 years old in August and will therefore be set to retire shortly after his 42nd birthday.
Wainwright is currently sitting on 195 career wins and will certainly crack the 200 plateau as long as he’s able to stay healthy. He is setting his sights higher than that, however. “The number I’m looking at is not 200, the number is 210,” Wainwright said, per Jones. Getting to 210 would allow Wainwright to tie Jesse Haines for second place on the all-time Cardinals list, behind only Bob Gibson’s 251. Wainwright also added that he would like to catch John Smoltz, who logged 213 career victories.
Regardless of how the 2023 campaign ultimately goes, Wainwright will finish with a fine career résumé. Making his debut back in 2005, he’s already appeared in 457 games, starting 390 of those and logging 2,567 1/3 innings. He has a career ERA of 3.38 over that time while notching 2,147 strikeouts. He’s made three All-Star teams, won a couple of Gold Gloves and was a World Series champion in 2006 and 2011 (though he missed the entirety of the latter championship season due to Tommy John surgery). That’s already a tremendous career, though he will have one more season to try to add to his personal accomplishments and grab one last World Series ring before hanging up his spikes.
Threw the curveball that ended the season of the best offensive Mets team ever. Hunting and fishing all day Adam. Enjoy!
Bro, that was 2006. George W was still president. Let it go. Wainwright himself admitted to using sticky stuff. Fake hero. Fake moment.
“sticky stuff”…. thank you MLB Purity Of The Game Ambassador. Give Joe Torre my regards. I’ll watch gassed up athletes hit balls off pitchers using sticky stuff all day.
Well gee like everyone else wasn’t using it?
sticky stuff, juice,andro…….bring MY game back!
Yeah. That makes it ok, just like Big Mac and his bag of steroids.
You’re real life is miserable isn’t it “harvard” grad making billions…
Bro…. that curveball to this day would still buckle Beltrans knees… all he tries is curveball and STILL NOBODY CAN HIT IT!!
It doesn’t take much to make Beltran’s body buckle. It’s as fragile as tissue paper in front of a stampede of elephants.
Should’ve gone with the boys, but another year of Waino isn’t horrible
That’s what I thought.
Winning Player
Amazing arm strength
Incredible concentration
Number #50
Wainwright
Right handed pitcher
Indescribable pitches
Good attitude
Happy long career
The Molina Wainwright Battery record
*Hope you get this joke*
Feahwind:
It is not a joke, it is an “acrostic”
Thanks, I couldn’t remember what it was called.
Fre5hwind*
Not much left to say here that hasn’t already been said. Congrats and good luck. We’re all behind you.
Please, no more of this guy…Waino this Waino that.
…..please no more…..
If he was only a dodger huh jumbo. It’s almost like Kershaw this and Kershaw that all over again.
You know how sick I am of hearing Kershaws name as well??? Dodger fan for 3 or 4 years, Halo fan for many many years more…Only guy I am a fanatic for is Trout. Small wonder.
Try pickerel. It’s great too.
Waino is more like Orel Hershiser or Fernando Valenzuela, a team legend but not a HOF player. No comparison between Kershaw and Waino.
Kershaw career WAR 75.9 ERA 2.48 WHIP 1.001 2807 Ks
Waino career WAR 46.8 ERA 3.38 WHIP 1.216 2147 Ks
“No comparison between Kershaw and Waino.”
With the very next word directly afterwards he disproves that statement by comparing the two.
The phrase “No comparison between” is commonly used to express that players are “leagues apart”, even when the players are in the same league.
Agreed but without injuries this conversation may be different. And you don’t find as many good, down to earth professional athletes like Waino.
Really? You mean that common phrase that everyone knows? Of course I know what it means.
It was just humorous to include that phrase right before a direct comparison of the two pitchers.
Just wondering: How many wins does Kershaw have? WAR, WAR+, etc. etc. etc. The only stat that means anything for pitchers is wins. Period. The only stat that means anything for hitters. Period. RBI .ake runs and enough runs mean wins.
Kershaw has certainly been the better player, but Wainwright is still a borderline Hall of Fame candidate himself. That’s like comparing Larry Walker to Willie Mays.
I think Kershaw is awesome, but even I would not compare him to Willie mays.
I agree Kershaw sucks in the post season. Waino has been really good when it means the most!
So he should have said that Waino has not been nearly as good of a pitcher as Kershaw has been? That the comparison between the two doesn’t look good for Waino? That HOVG Waino compared to 1st ballot HOF Kershaw is a mismatch?
Wins means literally nothing when comparing pitchers. Wins are a team stat. The more runs the team scores, the more likely the team is to win. What matters in comparing pitching performance is run prevention. That is their job.
***please no more comments***
Chef there is a fly in my soup, but I am having a super day.
He’ll struggle without Molina
He was struggling even with him the last month
You mean he was struggling after taking a 103mph fastball off of his knee? He did fine the 6 weeks without Molina
@fre5
Got it. But not before your tip.
Bizarre beforehand.
Nicely done
Ahaha thanks.
Selfish bum. Coming back to try for personal wins and wanting his own farewell tour without having to share the spotlight.
Can’t wait for the IRS to look into his fake water production charity and his illegal fantasy football operation.
Good for you
Wainwright closing in on 200 wins, sliderwithcheese aiming for everyone in the world to know what a pathetic loser he is. Who will reach their goal first???
slider is there. don’t you know he’s a billionaire though. ask him. he’ll tell you how he invented the wheel.
Only sliders with cheese he has are from Krystal Burger
No, he is a huge fan of White Castle. He is probably searching the couch for loose change for a few more burgers now
I previously wrote about his White Castle love.
You’ll enjoy his response. Classy guy.
Did Wainwright hookup with your girl or something? Weird player to hate.
no matter. cards might win 88 games but wainright will win 10, milkolos, matz and flahrety are injured too much. bounced in 2023 wild card playoffs even if they make that.
Betting on a Flaherty bounce back with health and ace-level production, Mikolas continued health, Wainwright health + productivity, and Matz health + bounce back seems like a lot of gambling to me. Also, what version of Jordan Montgomery are they going to get?
That’s why they have plenty of quality depth behind them such as Hudson, Woodford, Liberatore, Thompson, etc.
Any version of Montgomery is a decent starter at worst.
The depth is great, but there’s no one in the group that can go toe to toe with other top line starters in the postseason. The Phillies are reaping the benefits of the co-ace method; Wheeler and Nola are fantastic. The Dbacks won a championship due to Johnson and Schilling.
Wrong! Both Mikolas and Flaherty are at that level when healthy, as are Montgomery and Wainwright at times.
In fact, the starting pitchers (including Montgomery in relief) did very well against the Phillies in those two playoff games. They weren’t the reason the Cardinals lost the series.
As someone who follows the team, I’m not excited about this. I’m hoping they’ll trade one of their other starters and sign a true ace like Rodon, but it seems unlikely. I don’t think Wainwright makes this team any better this season. I would love to be wrong. They need to make a serious upgrade to the roster somewhere. How many excellent Goldschmidt-Arenado seasons do they think are left?
The pitching will suck but I think there are several more seasons of excellence from Goldie and Nolan.
I hope so. I’m definitely in the camp that believes that those two will age well due to their offensive approach. The rotation is so meh. They better hope some of these other young hitters take the next step and help carry the load.
They already have a true ace in Mikolas and two of them if Flaherty regains his old form.
I don’t see Mikolas as a true ace. I don’t think his numbers or track record reflect that. He’s more of a solid 2. The trouble with Flaherty is he’s only been an ace for halves of two seasons out of his whole career.
Since Mikolas’s return to the U.S., he’s had 2 All-Star seasons, 1 very good season, and 2 years ruined by injury in the middle. Those are enough numbers and track record as far as I’m concerned. The only real issue is his age.
As for Flaherty, health is the issue, which is why I put that disclaimer on him. Don’t forget that those two half seasons are his most recent healthy half seasons since his breakout.
This season was definitely good. But just because he’s an all-star doesn’t make him an ace. His first season back in 18 was excellent. 19 and 21 were average, middle of the rotation performances. He missed 2020 altogether. He’s a high-end 3 who can perform at a 2 level on a good year.
Um, yes, being an All-Star starter DOES make you an ace, at least over the first half of the season, and Mikolas mostly kept it up in the second half of both ’18 and ’22. Only about 20 starters make the All-Star team in both leagues in any given year, and once you subtract the ones that only made it due to each team needing a representative, the number is small enough to consider them all aces as well as maybe a couple of snubs.
He was well above average in ’19, and he also missed most of ’21 to injury.
He’s a solid #1 starter who might perform at a #2 level in a bad year.
That’s fine if that’s your assessment, but I just don’t agree. Plenty of players make the all-star team that don’t necessarily belong there. I’m not saying Mikolas was undeserving, but that doesn’t make it a good argument for defining an ace.
Dylan Cease missed the ASG, for example, yet he might win the Cy Young. Is he not an ace? Paul Blackburn made it as the A’s mandatory representative (and he was having a good year at the time), but then finished with an ERA over 4. Is he an ace? Tyler Anderson just had his first all-star appearance at 32. Had a great year. Is he now an ace?
Aces are the cream of the crop in starting pitching. Guys really need a track record of elite performances year after year, in my opinion, to be considered an ace. Additionally, the label can come and go. Grienke, for example, is no longer an ace. he doesn’t perform like one any more.
Cubs fan here and hope he gets what he wants and all those hating the guy, well still he stuck with the same team and had a very solid career that many of us wish we had.
Another Cubs fan. Ok but most of us would have been happy to be a middle reliever making one million a year with a 4.0 era.
What is this The Cards MLB TRADERUMOR SITE????. What next, reports on last flushed a toilet at Busch Stadium??
Busy day today, especially after getting knocked out in 2 games.
This guy was traded for JD Drew and a bag of rocks, if the Braves had Waino they’d win a WS before last season
Nah because the Braves always had decent pitching in the post season. Their offense always died. That was the problem.
So Eli Marrero is a bag of rocks?
Also, don’t forget that the Cardinals also got Jason Marquis and Ray King in that deal.
Thank you for bringing up Eli Marrero. Played about every position including catcher and had pop and speed. Not a superstar perhaps but very solid. Cards would sure take his prime version these days for sure.
Marrero could have been good. Iirc he had thyroid cancer or a major disorder in that area. The treatment affected his stamina so he couldn’t be an everyday player.
Lets give Adam the plate that Smoltz had and he’ll get that number.
Smoltz is a far better pitcher than Aintright; just look at the WAR and the numbers!
I am not even a Braves fan.
Even if Aintright gets 18 wins next year, won’t happen, and ties Smoltz with 213 wins that doesn’t equal 154 saves John had on top of that as an elite closer; that’s half way to the 300 saves that gets you near or in the HOF!
I don’t think 300 saves is anywhere close to a “magic number” for the Hall. Huston Street retired with 324 saves. I am a huge Rockies fan and loved watching Street pitch for his three years in purple, but even I think he will be lucky to even get 1 vote at the bottom of the ballot.
Starting pitching and the Hall is going to be interesting over the next decade or so. Wins are obviously not as highly thought of as in the past. It used to be that wins were the #1, #2, and #3 thing that people looked for with starters, now adjustments will likely need to be made. It will hurt guys like Tim Hudson, Mark Buehrle, Johan Santana and others that retired and fell off the ballot before changes took place. In six years, who knows? Wainwright could be one of those guys like Blyleven that starts slow and build momentum.
Wow! Hope he gets at least 5 wins next year!
It’s baseball…for the love of the game…..he needs to get to 200…and I can’t stand the Cards.
He be like I want a swan song. I think this guy has had an awesome career.
You left out Wainwright’s Silver Slugger Award among his career accolades!
Guess he decided he wanted his own retirement tour
He deserves to be in the hall of fame with his numbers if that over rated womanizing hack turd Derek Jeter is.
One of the worst trades in Braves history. I guess this was the payback by the baseball gods for the Smoltz trade.
The coolest thing to me about the Smoltz trade was that he was traded for Doyle Alexander near the end of his great career. Alexander as a young player was part of a deal for Frank Robinson near the end of his HOF career. So those two trades encompassed three careers that lasted from 1956-2009. It’s a shame Smoltz wasn’t traded near the end of his career to Boston or St. Louis to keep the train going.
A long-time Cardinals fan here. I had hoped Wainwright would have achieved 200 wins last season and then retire with Pujols and Molina. However, it seemed there were several games last season where Waino left a game either with a lead that was blown by the bullpen or where he pitched a quality game, but the offense didn’t support him. Coulda woulda shoulda……
Should have ridden off into the sunset with Yadi.
Adam’s whole thing seems to be about stats. Pathetic. Pujols “could” have stuck around to pass The Babe in homers and try to be #1 in RBI, but he opted to retire. Criticize if you like, but Wainright going 2-8 with a 6.72 ERA would humor me. And I actually like(d) the guy.
Probably because the game of baseball is all about stats. Why are you upset he wants to get to 200? It’s not like he is stinking it up out there making a mockery of the game. He is at least a #3 in the rotation. If you are truly a fan of baseball, you would enjoy watching Wainwright work through a lineup using an 87mph fastball, hammer curve, and almost 20 years of smarts and savvy. Sure better than watching Jordan Hicks throw 102 with hardly any idea where it will end up.