Wainwright to return in 2023, his final season

ST. LOUIS -- Feeling as if he still has something left to prove following an uncharacteristically subpar final six weeks of the 2022 season, veteran pitcher Adam Wainwright has informed the Cardinals that he will return in '23 -- which will be his last as an MLB pitcher.

Cardinals president John Mozeliak confirmed on Wednesday that the 41-year-old Wainwright will return for an 18th season with the franchise. Mozeliak and manager Oliver Marmol said several times throughout the 2022 season that they wanted Wainwright back because of his vast abilities and for the immense leadership he brings to the pitching staff.

"He and I started talking about this in early September, and obviously, the September didn’t go as he wanted it to, but we really do feel like there’s something left in that tank,” said Mozeliak, who also announced four members of the Cardinals' coaching staff won’t return for 2023. “We all know how competitive [Wainwright] is, we know how special he is in that clubhouse and what he means to this organization. So we’re just glad we could get it done.”

Wainwright said while he’s hungry to pitch again, he doesn’t want the fact that it's his final season to distract from his focus of trying to win another World Series title.

“I have so many distractions as it is, and I don’t need any more,” Wainwright said. “If I tell you it’s the last one, then I’ve got to go through a bunch of stuff. … My main focus of playing next year is to go out and win and help this team win.

“Long story short: Yes, this will be the last one,” Wainwright added. “Everybody relax and let me pitch. Let me go out and perform and not freak out about it every single day, and let’s see what happens.”

Sitting at 195 wins over an illustrious career that has seen him finish in the top seven of NL Cy Young Award voting five times, Wainwright should be able to reach 200 wins and potentially make a run at 210 victories, which would tie him for the second most in franchise history behind only Bob Gibson (251). He said 212 career wins -- which would require him to match his 2021 win total of 17 victories -- is a number he is hoping to exceed, because it would allow him to pass Hall of Famer and close friend John Smoltz.

Wainwright went 11-12 with a 3.71 ERA in 32 starts last season -- the first losing season of his career in which he made at least 20 starts. He claimed he “ruined” a good season by winning only two times over his final six starts with a 7.22 ERA. That poor closing stretch, one that he repeatedly blamed on a “dead arm” condition, left him five wins short of 200 and 8 1/3 innings shy of his preseason goal of 200. It led to him not pitching in the postseason, as the Cardinals were swept by the No. 6 seed Phillies in the NL Wild Card Series, who won the NL pennant and will face the Astros in the World Series beginning on Friday.

Wainwright blamed himself -- both for letting his delivery slip out of whack and for letting his team down -- with so much at stake. He thinks his downturn in performance can be traced back to a leg injury suffered against the Braves.

In a series of Twitter posts earlier this month, Wainwright pointed to the ball off Austin Riley’s bat in his start vs. the Braves at Busch Stadium on Aug. 28. That ball, which left Riley’s bat at 103.5 mph, ricocheted off Wainwright’s left knee, and he scrambled to get it and throw to first for the out. Wainwright, 41 and in his 17th MLB season, stayed in the game and pitched well enough for the Cardinals to rally and win. However, he feels the lingering pain from the comebacker affected his stride length and his pitches.

“Without knowing it, after that [Aug. 28] game, my stride length got shorter by almost a foot,” the 6-foot-7 Wainwright posted. “Timing was thrown [off]. That had never been a problem for me in the past. My stride length has always been very consistent. Because my timing was so badly off, my front arm started to try and create power by pulling. And when that happens, you just pull yourself off target.”

Wainwright said his mind was made up to return as he walked off the field following the Cardinals' Game 2 loss to the Phillies. He said he had a strong feeling before the playoffs that the victor in the Cards-Phils series would win the World Series. Not pitching in that NL Wild Card Series because of his poor final six weeks will drive him throughout the offseason to be better in 2023.

“That feeling I had of not being chosen to pitch right there, that ticks me off -- not at anybody else, but at me, because that’s what I deserved. I didn’t deserve to pitch those two games,” said Wainwright, who noted that José Quintana and Miles Mikolas were fully deserving of pitching in Games 1 and 2. “I know if I had pitched like I should have pitched -- and can pitch -- it’s a no-brainer that I’m pitching one of those games. And, in my mind, we’re winning one of those two games, then we’re winning Game 3 and we’re going to win the World Series. That’s how my mind works. So when I’m doing reps of bench press or whatever it is, I’m going to be thinking about that. That’s going to be driving me to work harder and be more prepared.”

Wainwright’s return helps to steady a clubhouse that will be without veteran stars Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, who retired following the Cardinals' playoff ouster. Wainwright and Molina set the MLB record for career starts as a battery and finished with 328 starts, a record that likely won’t be broken any time soon.

“He’s excited and energized,” Mozeliak said of Wainwright. “When you think about how we look at our roster next year and you’re always going to be needing pitching, having [Wainwright] back is certainly helpful for all of us.”