Team USA baseball fans divided over Adam Wainwright potentially joining team for World Baseball Classic

MLB insider Jon Morosi recently reported that St. Louis Cardinals legend Adam Wainwright could be on Team USA. The veteran pitcher will complete his MLB career in 2023.

With the MLB season wrapped up, the next big baseball spectacle on the calendar is the World Baseball Classic. The quadrennial event was last played in 2017 but was canceled in 2021 due to the pandemic. It will finally take place again in March 2023.

Wainwright has had a trophy-laden career that includes a World Series title, two Gold Gloves, and three All-Star selections. However, the Cardinals stalwart is yet to make a World Baseball Classic appearance.

Fans of Team USA baseball are now conflicted about the news that Wainwright could join the squad. One concern is that he's presently 41 years old; even though he had a respectable season in 2022 that bore a 3.71 ERA to go along with a 11-12 record, he didn't make an appearance in the postseason due to his struggles as the season wound down.

Even if it elicited polarising reactions from fans, Team USA could certainly benefit from Adam Wainwright's assistance in camp.

On offense, the team features Wainwright's St. Louis Cardinals NL MVP Paul Goldschmidt and fellow finalist Nolan Arenado, as well as Bryce Harper, Mookie Betts, and Pete Alonso. However, the team's pitching rotation leaves a lot to be desired, with only D'Backs starter Merrill Kelly and relievers Dillon Tate, David Bednar, and Devin Williams committed so far.

Adam Wainwright's 2022 season

Before the season even started, fans were skeptical of Adam Wainwright's outlook for the 2022 season. After all, he was pitching in his 40th year and had been with the league for 16 seasons.

However, he dispelled all doubts by performing admirably throughout the season. Wainwright finished with an 11-12 record, a 3.71 ERA, 143 strikeouts, and even a complete game.

About the author

Daniel Santiago is a journalist who has been reporting on baseball at Sportskeeda since 2022. He was drawn towards the sport after the underlying statistics and the analysis surrounding it grabbed his attention.

Daniel particularly enjoys furnishing reports about historic events in baseball and analyzing the game through a statistic-based outlook, based on Fangraphs and Baseball-Reference. This is in line with how he enjoyed watching baseball as a pastime. As a writer, he is very particular about cross-checking from reputable sources and doing his due diligence.

He became a lifelong Hideki Matsui fan after his exploits in the 2009 World Series for the New York Yankees. Among the current generation, Daniel's favorites include Shohei Ohtani and Jung Hoo Lee. Daniel is a huge follower of Asian baseball and both Ohtani and Lee have been in the top echelon of their respective leagues during their time with the NPB and KBO.

His favorite moment as a baseball fan was the final at-bat of the 2023 World Baseball Classic between Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout. He believes there aren't many words to fittingly describe the intensity of the moment.

As an avid sports fan, Daniel watches other sports and Esports when not writing about baseball.

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