The 2023 MLB season is right around the corner.
Spring training begins today and pitchers and catchers are getting set for another season of baseball.
For Adam Wainwright, this will be the last time he prepares for an upcoming season.
The St. Louis Cardinals veteran righty is retiring at the end of the 2023 season.
The 41-year-old returned after a shaky September cost him a chance to pitch in the postseason.
Retirement has something that has been on the table for quite some time for Wainwright, and he was considering walking away at the end of last season.
But Wainwright stated that even if he had retired last season, he would’ve wanted to pitch for Team USA in the World Baseball Classic and have that be his final competition.
Today, he made clear that he wants his final competition to take place in the World Series.
Adam Wainwright says if he had retired after last season, he would have made an attempt to be on Team USA for World Baseball Classic and that would have been his final competition.
He adds now he’d like a World Series game to be.#stlcards #Cardinals
— Derrick Goold (@dgoold) February 13, 2023
St. Louis has not been to the World Series since 2013.
That year, they lost in six games to the Boston Red Sox, with Wainwright taking the loss in Games 1 and 5.
But his goals for 2023 are clear.
He wants to walk away a champion and not suffer through any more playoff heartbreak.
The right-hander has won two World Series titles, having closed out the 2006 World Series and been a part of the 2011 team that erased a 10.5-game deficit in the Wild Card race.
He is the last remaining holdover from those two teams.
But after 12 years, Wainwright wants one last shot to win another ring and to go out on top.
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