In His Final Season Adam Wainwright Has Been Baseball's Worst Pitcher, But Now He's Only One Win From 200. Will He Get There?
This is become one of those "so bad it's good" stories. Adam Wainwright decided to come back for one final season this year. He could've gone out with Yadier Molina and Albert Pujols but chose not to. The Cardinals have gone on to have one of the worst seasons in franchise history, and Adam Wainwright has been at the forefront of that. A few weeks back, I wrote a blog about how he may be having the worst final season ever. The one silver lining that Cardinals fans were looking forward to seeing this year was watching Adam Wainwright reach his 200th career win. It seemed inevitable coming into the season that he would reach that milestone. Yeah, about that.
Wainwright picked up his fourth win of the season last year, putting his career total at 199. His ERA on the season sits at 7.95. He's only delivered two quality starts this entire season. But now that he's reached 199, the possibility of 200 is legitimate. He's going to have several more opportunities to do it, and you know that the Cardinals are going to do all they can to get him across the finish line.
If Wainwright ended his career at 199 wins, it would be remarkably depressing, but he has no one to blame but himself. This isn't Jacob deGrom going out and shoving and getting no run support. Wainwright has been the worst pitcher in baseball this season. Does he end up reaching 200? I honestly don't think so. The Cardinals offense has struggled this year, and Wainwright has been even worse. The stars would need to align for him just to get one more win on the season. 
Wainwright's been nothing but good his entire career. I'm genuinely rooting for him to reach win number 200. He's been open about the fact that this season has not gone how he expected it to. He's a Cardinals Legend through and through. It is so rare to see any player spend their entire career with one organization, but Wainwright is a rare exception.
I will be watching this very closely because I find it fascinating. You have a pitcher who's had a phenomenal career and returned in large part to reach this milestone. I don't think any Cardinals fan expected this to come down to the wire, but I don't think any Cardinals fan expected the season to go as sideways as it did. I hope he gets there. If he doesn't, it'll be wildly depressing.