Waino a no-brainer to start WC: 'Means a lot'

ST. LOUIS -- The day after the Cardinals clinched their spot in Wednesday’s Wild Card Game at Dodger Stadium, manager Mike Shildt found his ace, Adam Wainwright, in the bowels of Busch Stadium for perhaps the least shocking conversation to be had within the city limits of St. Louis on that given day.

“Hey, what do you need to be ready for Wednesday?” Shildt asked him.

“What's Wednesday?” Wainwright responded.

“You know what Wednesday is.”

“Am I pitching that game?”

Seven years ago -- or even 12 years ago -- when Wainwright was one of the best pitchers in the Majors, it would have been a mere formality of a conversation. Thinking back to three years ago, when Wainwright walked off the mound at Petco Park thinking he might have thrown the last pitch of his career with an injury to his twice surgically repaired right elbow, a conversation such as that would have been a mere fantasy.

In 2021, at 40 years of age, having more fun than he’s ever had in his career, the conversation Wainwright had with Shildt unfolded “like it was obvious,” the veteran righty said. That in of itself is an amazement.

“That’s such a cool thing for me,” Wainwright said recently, “because three years ago, I was on the mound, basically dead. Three years later, to have it kind of be a no-brainer that I was pitching the most important game of the season ... that means a lot to me. That means a lot.”

Such is the awe-striking (though not if you ask those at the plate against him), surprising (though not if you ask those behind the scenes with him) and remarkable (though not if you ask those who play behind him) reality Wainwright has carved out for himself at this point in his career. Partly by need, but mostly by performance, he is the ace of the pitching staff in the twilight of his career, committed to play one more season in 2022. He is the spiritual leader. He is the elder statesman -- as he’s been for years.

“They don't make many people like Waino,” said Matt Carpenter, Wainwright’s second-longest-tenured teammate behind Yadier Molina. “I can sit here for an hour and tell you all the great things about him.”

The question begs: How? How has Wainwright not just pitched with durability at this juncture but do so while bound to earn down-ballot NL Cy Young Award votes, while leading the Majors in complete games and finishing just shy of the innings crown with a 3.05 ERA on the season? He’s been asked about it repeatedly over the course of the season, and after a shrug of the shoulders, he acknowledges a few key factors.

The first is his health. When Wainwright endured his elbow injury in 2018, he knew he needed a change. He overhauled his diet, nixing junk food and treats he used to down without a second thought. With the efforts of orthopedic surgeon Dr. George Paletta, performance specialists Thomas Knox and Jason Shutt, head trainer Adam Olsen and his staff, former teammate and current Giant Dominic Leone and countless others, Wainwright feels like he’s pitching both as young and with more comfort than he has ever before.

The other is his approach. Never a flamethrower, Wainwright loves the art of pitch mix. Now that’s to a new degree, as he throws with less velocity than he has before. The chess match of trying to set up a strike three by working a batter inside and then beating him outside -- or bending them with an Uncle Charlie curveball -- is what he obsesses over. And he’s the best at it; no starter in the Majors this season was better at getting called strikes on the fringes of the zone than Wainwright. (That’s also a testament to Molina, his Hall of Fame-bound batterymate.)

“I mean, sure, I could go out and pitch with a 100 mph fastball tomorrow and get lots of outs, but you try doing it at 89,” Wainwright said. “That's fun, man.”

And the last is his mindset. Wainwright had his doubters. Internal and external; in St. Louis and on the national scene; real and perceived. His toils haven’t allowed him to take anything for granted. His path behind has forced his focus forward.

“I still carry those chips on my shoulder at all times. Even if they're not thinking it, I've created that,” Wainwright said. “Right now, in my mind, people are going, ‘OK, he did it once, but he can't do it again. He won't beat whatever team he's going to pitch against in this Wild Card Game. He's too old to do that. It's too big a moment. He won't do this again next year.’ ... That's what I'm going with for the remainder of my career.”

It’s that mindset that has Wainwright a Cardinal for life -- “One of the greatest Cardinals ever,” club chairman Bill DeWitt Jr. proclaimed recently. Wainwright is thankful to make the team out of Spring Training, even if the thought of not doing so appears simply ludicrous. He would be thankful for the chance to pitch on any Wednesday, but especially so on this Wednesday.

“Once you think you're ripe,” Shildt said recently, quoting Olsen, the club’s head trainer, “you’re rotten.”

When Wainwright turned down retirement and signed a one-year contract before the 2019 season, the tenor from the organization was that he would compete for a starting role -- the starting role that was once annually reserved for him -- at Spring Training. It was far from a given.

“There is risk,” president of baseball operations John Mozeliak said at the time, “but it is shared.”

“I didn't deserve any guaranteed money, honestly,” Wainwright says now. “I needed to go out and prove it. I needed to go out and show the world that I wasn't completely broken again.”

Now, it’s hard to imagine those conversations were ever shared around the offices on Clark Avenue. Now, it’s conversations like the ones Wainwright shared with Shildt, that are obvious. They would have been incumbent seven or 12 years ago but unfathomable three years ago.

They are, quite simply, a testament to Wainwright.

“I've learned a long time ago,” Mozeliak said recently. “Never bet against the man.”