Adam Wainwright doesn’t like it, but he know he has to accept it–almost. The St. Louis Cardinals ace is still holding out a glimmer of hope that he will recover from his upcoming Achilles tendon surgery on Thursday in enough time to get back on the mound this season.
“There’s almost no likelihood of me pitching this year and that I should take it very cautiously and make sure that I’m good going forward for the rest of my career and I can accept that,” began Wainwright. “I’m gonna work my tail off to the levels that they tell me I can for this entire year and who knows, something crazy might happen at the end of the year, you never know. I’ll use that for motivation to an extent that I’m allowed to do it.”
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It was a similar strategy that he used after Tommy John surgery and missed the 2011 season–that carrot of hope to return early fueled his rehab. But unlike that procedure, Wainwright understands the advice of Ryan Howard and others on needing to be careful not to push too hard.
“It sounds like with this if you push too hard too soon, you can really mess things up,” acknowledged Adam. “That’s exactly what I don’t want to do so unfortunately, I won’t be able to get out there in a few weeks to help this team. But, I’ve been given no negative vibes about being completely 100% ready to go next year, so I have no doubts about it.”
In the meantime, Wainwright is confident can still make a difference in the clubhouse, whether it be scouting reports, tipping pitches, or keeping the energy up.
“What I’m going to make real clear to this team is we need to avoid the trap of having that lull when you lose an impact player,” said Wainwright. “You can almost kind of be shell-shocked for a couple of days and we just need to keep that good energy going because we have incredible energy in the dugout. When we do, we play really good ball. Those guys will pick that up, we’re going to be just fine.”
Wainwright also mentioned with a smile that he told his wife this season doesn’t count–meaning he would like to play one year past when this existing contract expires after 2018.
