Cardinals: Adam Wainwright provides grim update on MLB lockout

St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright provides grim update on MLB lockout and how it might impact breaking a major-league record.

The Major League Baseball lockout has entered its third month and the two sides are nowhere remotely close toward completing a deal. And when asked about the state of negotiations on Sunday, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright provided a grim update.

Wainwright said that the two sides are “not even close” to a deal, before adding: “If owners proposed the exact same deal we have right now, we’d probably go play baseball, to be honest with you. That’s just not happening. Not even close, to be honest with you.”

Perhaps that quote was taken out of context, as Cardinals pitcher Jack Flaherty later called out the reporter who published that quote, Jeff Jones of the Belleville News-Democrat, by saying “Jeff on his clickbait BS.”

But it’s still a bleak update and not what Wainwright wanted to hear, especially since he needs a 162-game season to break the current record for battery mates with Yadier Molina. They have currently played 305 games together, 19 shy of the current record held by Detroit Tigers’ Mickey Lolich and Bill Freehan.

“We need a full season,” Wainwright said. “As long as we stay healthy, there’s no reason we can’t play to break that record and set our own record that I really feel like will never ever get broken ever again. We have some cool things this year, but we need a full season, you know?”

It’s the reality that Wainwright, Molina and every other player now faces. At the very least, the start of spring training will be delayed. That’s a certainty. But just how far this goes is anyone’s guess – and it’s possible that the regular season could start after St. Patrick’s Day, perhaps even later than that.

Wainwright’s comments are just the latest example of the dwindling optimism surrounding the CBA talks. Prepare for the worst. We won’t have baseball for a long, long time. And it could spoil Molina and Wainwright’s chances of breaking the battery mate record.