All good things come to an end, including Adam Wainwright's pitching ability
Father Time may be slow, but it is undefeated. Big 50 has to hit pause.
Five years ago, Adam Wainwright almost retired.
In a season where he only made eight starts and was shellacked on Opening Day at Busch Stadium, Wainwright told the media he thought about hanging up the cleats and mitt. Thankfully, he did not, making 116 additional starts after the 2018 season. Unfortunately, his last three have been disastrous, bringing back those retirement clouds.
Wainwright hasn’t said a word about stepping down or away from the game, but that’s not his call alone to make. The St. Louis Cardinals must step in and make the call to pull him out of the rotation. Eleven starts makes for enough evidence that things aren’t being figured out or trending well, so the shutdown service has to arrive.
For good? Probably. What else can Wainwright do to fool hitters? He’s a month and week away from 42 years of age, a desert for older professional pitchers in Major League Baseball. One of those older dudes, Rich Hill, looked pretty good recently against St. Louis. Wainwright has looked like a trainwreck.
It doesn’t feel kind to say, but the truth is brutal in big league sports. A couple weeks after defending his social media-cancelling honor, today is an article I wrote a couple of times. Wainwright turned back the clock, erasing the words of naysayers and critics. The fact that he tacked five more years onto an already rock solid career is a feat most arms don’t reach.
99% of pitchers throw their arm out well before 40. Once upon a time, Wainwright spiked the catcher’s mitt with mid-90s heat. He supplemented the knee-buckling curve with good heat and a sly two-seam fastball, but those tricks and speeds don’t last forever. The bender he threw on today against the Miami Marlins was a loopy 72-mph kiss-me ticket to Smashedville.
Pull the plug, and save the veteran some embarrassment. I say “some” because being beat up like a piñata in London versus the rival Cubs isn’t an easy-to-forget memory. Wainwright has allowed 17 earned runs in his last three starts. He allowed just 23 overall in a ten-start pandemic-reduced 2020 season.
No, he can’t be a reliever. The assignments only get tougher out of the bullpen, where single mistakes multiply in seconds on a scoreboard. The earned run average, which currently sits at 7.66, would balloon even larger. Ninth inning blow-out game appearances won’t feel that much better either. Busch Stadium will boo the man.
Don’t doubt the so-called “best fans in baseball” when it comes to turning on a franchise legend all in the name of a game that was most likely lost in the first inning. They’ll be sinister kids with old “Waino.”
It’s hard to see him pitch this poorly. The man who once fooled Carlos Beltran out of his shoes now looks helplessly adrift on the mound. The guy who closed down a World Series with a slider can’t finish more than three innings lately.
The greatest trick baseball can play on a fan is making them think one of their best won’t falter. It happens to all of them. But Cards fans have carried a knowledge of the end of Waino days for years now; the reality just stinks.
I hope team boss John Mozeliak lets Oliver Marmol pull Wainwright out of the rotation. It’s time.
Yep, he’s done. There’s no shame in being unable to get outs at 42 years old. Waino has had a great career. He may choose to stick around out of loyalty and try to eat a few innings for this hopeless team; regardless, he’s at the end of the line. The broadcast booth soon beckons, one can only assume.