Players · W · Pitcher · 2023 regular season

Adam Wainwright

St. Louis Cardinals National League Central

Age: 42
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 7"
Weight: 230 lb

Born: August 30, 1981 in Brunswick, GA, United States
MLB debut: September 11, 2005

Compare with…vs Clayton Kershaw vs Justin Verlander vs Max Scherzer

dbWAR: 54.6
IP: 101.0
ERA: 7.40
FIP: 5.99
K/9: 4.9
FIP−: 138

Adam Wainwright was a starting pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals. In 2023 he struck out 55 batters over 101.0 innings across 21 appearances, 21 of them starts, going 5-11. His ERA of 7.40 was 70.7% higher than the league average of 4.33 — the second worst on his team, and 535th of 550 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 5.99 FIP suggests he pitched better than his ERA shows. He missed bats on 13.1% of swings (5.4% of every pitch he threw), walked 8.5% of the batters he faced and struck out 11.4%. His -0.6 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2023 regular season.

FIP5.99

K/94.9

WHIP1.90

WAR-.6

WAR by season

Pitching Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below.


2023	STL	21	21	101.0	5	11	0	151	83	55	41	7.40	5.99	1.90	4.9	3.7	171	138	-0.6
2022	STL	32	32	191.2	11	12	0	192	79	143	54	3.71	3.66	1.28	6.7	2.5	93	92	2.9
2021	STL	32	32	206.1	17	7	0	168	70	174	50	3.05	3.66	1.06	7.6	2.2	72	86	3.7
2020	STL	10	10	65.2	5	3	0	54	23	54	15	3.15	4.11	1.05	7.4	2.1	71	92	1.1
2019	STL	31	31	171.2	14	10	0	181	80	153	64	4.19	4.36	1.43	8.0	3.4	93	97	2.3
2018	STL	8	8	40.1	2	4	0	41	20	40	18	4.46	4.28	1.46	8.9	4.0	108	103	0.4
2017	STL	24	23	123.1	12	5	0	140	70	96	45	5.11	4.29	1.50	7.0	3.3	117	98	1.4
2016	STL	33	33	198.2	13	9	0	220	102	161	59	4.62	3.93	1.40	7.3	2.7	110	94	2.8
2015	STL	7	4	28.0	2	1	0	25	5	20	4	1.61	2.13	1.04	6.4	1.3	41	54	0.9
2014	STL	32	32	227.0	20	9	0	184	60	179	50	2.38	2.88	1.03	7.1	2.0	64	77	5.2
2013	STL	34	34	241.2	19	9	0	223	79	219	35	2.94	2.55	1.07	8.2	1.3	76	66	6.5
2012	STL	32	32	198.2	14	13	0	196	87	184	52	3.94	3.10	1.25	8.3	2.4	98	77	4.4
2010	STL	33	33	230.1	20	11	0	186	62	213	56	2.42	2.86	1.05	8.3	2.2	59	70	5.9
2009	STL	34	34	233.0	19	8	0	216	68	212	66	2.63	3.11	1.21	8.2	2.5	61	72	5.8
2008	STL	20	20	132.0	11	3	0	122	47	91	34	3.20	3.78	1.18	6.2	2.3	74	87	2.3
2007	STL	32	32	202.0	14	12	0	212	83	136	70	3.70	3.90	1.40	6.1	3.1	83	87	3.5
2006	STL	61	0	75.0	2	1	3	64	26	72	22	3.12	3.31	1.15	8.6	2.6	69	73	1.4
2005	STL	2	0	2.0	0	0	0	2	3	0	1	13.50	11.02	1.50	0.0	4.5	315	257	-0.1

Batting Regular season

Standard and advanced, by season. Regular-season games only — postseason games are listed separately below.


2023	STL	2	2	0	0	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	50.0%	.000	-0.5	-117	-0.1
2021	STL	33	74	7	0	4	3	25	.123	.167	.158	.035	.219	4.1%	33.8%	.151	-10.3	-16	0.1
2019	STL	29	59	8	0	2	2	20	.160	.189	.220	.060	.258	3.4%	33.9%	.178	-7.3	2	0.2
2018	STL	8	12	1	0	1	0	6	.091	.091	.091	.000	.200	0.0%	50.0%	.080	-2.3	-66	-0.1
2017	STL	24	50	11	2	11	1	15	.262	.279	.452	.190	.360	2.0%	30.0%	.311	-0.6	94	0.6
2016	STL	32	69	13	2	18	2	17	.210	.234	.452	.242	.256	2.9%	24.6%	.291	-1.7	81	0.8
2015	STL	4	10	0	0	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000	.000	0.0%	20.0%	.000	-2.5	-125	-0.1
2014	STL	30	82	13	0	6	3	22	.181	.213	.222	.042	.260	3.7%	26.8%	.200	-7.1	19	0.4
2013	STL	31	81	15	0	6	0	23	.211	.208	.268	.056	.306	0.0%	28.4%	.209	-6.8	24	0.4
2012	STL	32	72	8	1	4	3	32	.121	.159	.197	.076	.212	4.2%	44.4%	.162	-8.8	-7	0.1
2010	STL	35	96	14	0	6	7	23	.167	.231	.226	.060	.230	7.3%	24.0%	.215	-8.4	24	0.4
2009	STL	39	96	16	2	4	1	26	.180	.189	.326	.146	.230	1.0%	27.1%	.223	-8.6	26	0.5
2008	STL	25	65	16	1	6	2	20	.267	.286	.350	.083	.375	3.1%	30.8%	.282	-2.7	66	0.5
2007	STL	36	74	18	1	6	3	18	.290	.323	.387	.097	.395	4.1%	24.3%	.318	-1.1	90	0.8
2006	STL	5	6	3	1	1	0	0	.500	.500	1.167	.667	.400	0.0%	0.0%	.693	+1.8	343	0.3

Separate from the regular season

Postseason Postseason

Wild Card through World Series. These games are counted on their own: none of them are in the regular-season tables, career totals, league context, leaderboards or dbWAR on this page.

Postseason pitching

Postseason Adam Wainwright's postseason pitching, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	GS	IP	W	L	SV	H	ER	HR	BB	SO	ERA	WHIP	K/9
2021 Post	STL	Wild Card	1	1	5.1	0	0	0	4	1	1	2	5	1.69	1.13	8.4
2020 Post	STL	Wild Card	1	1	3.1	0	0	0	6	2	0	2	3	5.40	2.40	8.1
2019 Post	STL	Postseason total	3	2	16.2	0	1	0	13	3	1	3	19	1.62	0.96	10.3
		NLDS	1	1	7.2	0	0	0	4	0	0	2	8	0.00	0.78	9.4
		NLCS	2	1	9.0	0	1	0	9	3	1	1	11	3.00	1.11	11.0
2015 Post	STL	NLDS	3	0	5.1	0	0	0	3	1	1	0	6	1.69	0.56	10.1
2014 Post	STL	Postseason total	3	3	16.0	0	1	0	21	10	2	6	14	5.63	1.69	7.9
		NLDS	1	1	4.1	0	0	0	11	6	1	1	5	12.46	2.77	10.4
		NLCS	2	2	11.2	0	1	0	10	4	1	5	9	3.09	1.29	6.9
2013 Post	STL	Postseason total	5	5	35.0	2	3	0	31	10	1	3	34	2.57	0.97	8.7
		NLDS	2	2	16.0	2	0	0	11	2	1	1	15	1.13	0.75	8.4
		NLCS	1	1	7.0	0	1	0	6	2	0	0	5	2.57	0.86	6.4
		World Series	2	2	12.0	0	2	0	14	6	0	2	14	4.50	1.33	10.5
2012 Post	STL	Postseason total	3	3	15.0	1	0	0	17	8	4	3	20	4.80	1.33	12.0
		NLDS	2	2	8.0	0	0	0	13	7	3	3	15	7.88	2.00	16.9
		NLCS	1	1	7.0	1	0	0	4	1	1	0	5	1.29	0.57	6.4
2009 Post	STL	NLDS	1	1	8.0	0	0	0	3	1	1	1	7	1.13	0.50	7.9
2006 Post	STL	Postseason total	9	0	9.2	1	0	4	7	0	0	2	15	0.00	0.93	14.0
		NLDS	3	0	3.2	0	0	1	3	0	0	0	6	0.00	0.82	14.7
		NLCS	3	0	3.0	0	0	2	2	0	0	1	4	0.00	1.00	12.0
		World Series	3	0	3.0	1	0	1	2	0	0	1	5	0.00	1.00	15.0
Career		Postseason total · 9 Octobers	29	16	114.1	4	5	4	105	36	11	22	123	2.83	1.11	9.7

Postseason batting

Postseason Adam Wainwright's postseason batting, by October and round. Not part of any regular-season figure on this page.
Season	Team	Round	G	PA	AB	R	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2021 Post	STL	Wild Card	1	3	2	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
2019 Post	STL	Postseason total	2	4	4	0	0	3	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLDS	1	2	2	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	1	2	2	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
2014 Post	STL	Postseason total	3	5	4	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLDS	1	1	1	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
		NLCS	2	4	3	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
2013 Post	STL	Postseason total	4	11	9	1	1	4	.000	.100	.000	.100
		NLDS	2	7	5	1	1	1	.000	.167	.000	.167
		NLCS	1	2	2	0	0	1	.000	.000	.000	.000
		World Series	1	2	2	0	0	2	.000	.000	.000	.000
2012 Post	STL	Postseason total	3	6	3	0	2	2	.000	.400	.000	.400
		NLDS	2	3	2	0	1	2	.000	.333	.000	.333
		NLCS	1	3	1	0	1	0	.000	.500	.000	.500
2009 Post	STL	NLDS	1	3	2	0	0	0	.000	.000	.000	.000
Career		Postseason total · 6 Octobers	14	32	24	1	3	12	.000	.111	.000	.111

Box-score and rate statistics only. wOBA, wRC+, FIP and dbWAR are measured against a full league season, and a postseason is a few teams playing each other for a month, so they are not computed for October.

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Season

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2023. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	231	200	70	9	29	25	.350	.429	.600	.437	10.8%
vs RHB	253	238	81	11	12	30	.340	.375	.550	.396	11.9%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2023.

Loading 1 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2023.

Pitch sequencing

What Adam Wainwright throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

SinkerCurveballCutterFour-seamChangeupSliderCS

Select a count to see exactly what Adam Wainwright throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.

Season


Sinker	31.4%	560	86.9	2,167	40.0%	9.4%	142	.394	1.188
Curveball	30.6%	546	71.5	2,647	39.9%	15.4%	140	.293	.827
Cutter	22.6%	404	82.9	2,321	40.6%	15.2%	93	.344	.857
Four-Seam Fastball	10.0%	178	85.7	2,158	41.6%	13.1%	43	.326	.954
Changeup	5.0%	89	81.4	1,655	23.6%	10.0%	18	.389	1.061

Adam Wainwright's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

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Similar players

Nearest 2023 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Carlos CarrascoNYM

ERA: 6.80
FIP: 5.86
SO: 66
WAR: -0.5

Kyle MullerOAK

ERA: 7.60
FIP: 6.14
SO: 56
WAR: -0.9

Dylan DoddATL

ERA: 7.60
FIP: 6.92
SO: 15
WAR: -0.6

Spencer TurnbullDET

ERA: 7.26
FIP: 5.55
SO: 24
WAR: -0.0

Comparable

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.