Unsatisfied with 2022 finish, Wainwright to return for one more season with Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals spent the majority of the 2022 season on a grand farewell tour, watching Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols feted with gifts and well wishes upon their last stop in each city.

Adam Wainwright would greatly prefer that 2023 not act as an encore, even though the means, motive and opportunity to do so will all exist.

The team and the right-hander agreed to a one-year contract on Wednesday that will return Wainwright to St. Louis for the 19th year, and 18th season pitching, of his career. It will be his last before retirement, he said.

“I can tell you yes,” Wainwright said at first when asked if he planned to retire, “but then there’s a whole lot of hoopla that you got to go through because it’s your last one.

“You know, one of the main reasons that made me want to retire this last year was that everybody was unsure if I was. There wasn’t a lot of to do about it. It would have been a sneaky thing if I kind of just rode off in the sunset. See, that would have been a good way to go out in my mind.”

Eventually, though, Wainwright acknowledged 2023, the year in which he turns 42 years old, will be his last as an active pitcher.

“Just everybody relax,” he insisted. “You know, let me pitch. Let me go out and perform. Don’t freak out about it every single day and let’s just see what happens. How about that?”

Despite his protestations, the adoration is likely to come from far and wide. Indeed, Wainwright said that he received a text message from a teammate during his video conference with reporters insisting that he did indeed receive a farewell tour just as grand as that his teammates received last season.

It was his end of season struggles, though, which acted in part as motivation for a follow-up act. He entered September with a 3.09 ERA on the season, and posted a quality start in five of his six August starts. His final start of that month, against Atlanta on the 28th, saw him absorb a line drive on his right shin that, unbeknownst to him, would unravel his pitching for the stretch run.

He would exceed five innings in only one of his last six starts of the season and did not complete five innings in either of the last two. While he was on the roster for the Wild Card series against the Phillies, he started neither of the two games and did not appear out of the bullpen.

“I don’t like going out like that,” he acknowledged. “I wasn’t performing. I know I should have been performing. I wasn’t helping the team like I knew I should have been helping the team.”

Eventually, after weeks of work and “thousands” of repetitions in front of a mirror, Wainwright traced the issue to what had, for the duration of his career, been consistent. The line drive off the leg set off a chain reaction which led to his stride length shortening by nearly a foot.

‘That’s my fault’

What felt like and was initially diagnosed as a “dead arm” period was instead the result of insufficient push and drive from his lower half. His arm felt strange because his legs weren’t providing what was typical, and as a result, his mechanics became unglued as he struggled to source the shortcoming.

“That’s my fault,” Wainwright acknowledged, echoing comments that President of Baseball Operations John Mozeliak made earlier in the day. “That’s totally on me.

“Repeat the delivery, you repeat your pitches 60 feet away. My foot was landing shorter, and I felt weird. I knew something was wrong there, I just didn’t realize the extent of it. You know, it’s never, it was almost a foot short. When you land a foot shorter than what you have for a long, long time, if you land two inches short or three inches short, there’s a difference. Sixty feet away, there’s a big difference.”

210 is the goal

With the issue squared away and with confidence in whoever takes over as pitching coach following the departure of Mike Maddux — “Dusty (Blake), or whoever it is” — Wainwright can feel confidence in honing in on a couple statistical milestones.

At 195 victories entering 2023, Wainwright said the number he’s aiming for isn’t 200 — it’s 210. That plateau would bring him even with Jesse “Pop” Haines, tied for second all-time in franchise history behind Bob Gibson’s 251.

Bragging rights in the works?

And, as Wainwright figures it, drawing even with John Smoltz’s total of 213 could give him bragging rights with his former teammate and current golfing buddy.

Personal accolades aside — and with Wainwright they are always far aside — the goal for 2023 remains to win a championship, and in doing so, Wainwright would have the opportunity to exit with the same trophy he entered, cementing his place deeper in Cardinals history.

“You know, for me, if I went out and pitched 33 games next year, and then six or seven more in the postseason, we win the World Series, and then I got to say on the World Series stage, ‘nice knowing you, I’ll see y’all later,’ that would be the way to do it for me.”

This story was originally published October 26, 2022 at 5:43 PM.