Waino on sticky substances: 'Nothing to hide'

Adam Wainwright came clean in a metaphorical sense on Monday evening. He did so, physically, in 2019.

Speaking after his start, a six-inning effort in the Cardinals’ win over the Marlins, Wainwright confirmed reports from a Sports Illustrated story that he received a concoction of sticky substances in April 2019 from Brian “Bubba” Hawkins, an Angels staffer at the time.

Wainwright said he used the substance -- a combination of liquid pine tar, solid pine tar (called Mota stick) and rosin, intended to enhance pitch grip -- for a handful of starts but promptly gave it up and hasn’t used it since.

“What Bubba said is true. I tried it in 2019. Honestly, it didn't work for me,” Wainwright said. “... I tried it, I didn't like it, I got rid of it and haven't pitched with it in years.

“I got nothing to hide. If that gets me in trouble, because I did it years ago, then so be it. But I pitched without it for however many years that is until 2019, and I've pitched without it however many years since 2019. So I got nothing to hide. You can check my glove, you can check my hat, you can watch me like a hawk all game long -- you'll never see me with any of that stuff on me, ever. I got nothing to hide. I feel good about that.”

Wainwright noted that he did not like how it changed the release point for his deep arsenal of pitches, which includes a trademark curveball that, in 2019, featured a spin rate on par with the averages of his previous season, and one lower than his average in ’20 and ’21.

Wainwright’s comments came almost exactly 12 hours before Major League Baseball announced new guidance in regards to pitchers using foreign substances. As part of the guidelines, players can be suspended up to 10 games with pay should they be caught using foreign substances, starting June 21.

As a whole, Major League Baseball has been trying to clean up the game when it comes to how pitchers work around sticky substance rules. MLB has been looking into developing a stickier ball since 2016, including experimenting with a tackier ball in the 2016 Arizona Fall League and introducing a prototype for a day during Spring Training in 2019.

The Cardinals have had one notable incident involving foreign substances this season. Reliever Giovanny Gallegos’ hat was confiscated during a May 26 win over the White Sox, due to substance concerns, setting manager Mike Shildt into an impassioned postgame monologue about the appropriate ways he’d like to see both pitchers and batters protected in the enforcement of eradicating sticky substances.

Shildt supported Wainwright on Monday night.

“Don't you appreciate a man of integrity?” Shildt said. “I give him again so much credit. He tried it, it didn't do anything for him, and he could easily try to alibi his way out of it in front of you and [instead] owned up to it. I got a lot of respect for somebody who stands up and says, ‘Yeah, I gave it a whirl for a little bit to see what it was all about,’ didn't like it and stood up and said it. I got a lot of respect. No one's perfect, but if you stand up for yourselves and say what's right and he did it, I'm proud of him.”