Rumors: Braves Showing Interest in Adam Wainwright

The rumor mill is getting started early for the Atlanta Braves who have expressed interest in a veteran starting pitcher.

There was already a lot of chatter about the Atlanta Braves possibly having interest in 36-year-old Jon Lester, now it’s been reported that they’ve reached out about 39-year-old Adam Wainwright.

David O’Brien of The Athletic (subscription required) wrote an article this week detailing the Braves interest in the former first-round draft pick that they traded away 20 years ago.

I understand the Braves wanting to find a veteran presence for the rotation — as they tried to do with Cole Hamels in 2020.

Unlike Lester, Wainwright is actually coming off a really good year in which he posted a 3.15 ERA in 65.2 innings with a league-high 2 complete games.

And the season before he had a respectable 4.19 ERA over 31 starts.

But he’s also not as reliable as Lester missing significant time in 2015, 2018, and a good bit in 2017.

However, like Lester, Wainwright has a ton of postseason experience and a World Series championship under his belt.

Waino was not great in his lone postseason appearance in 2020 lasting just 3.1 innings against the San Diego Padres.

But in 2019 he gave up just 3 earned runs in 16.2 innings in the postseason over 3 appearances (2 starts).

The true equalizer for Wainwright the past several years as he’s lost velocity on his fastball has been his great curveball, which is still one of the best in the game.

Over the last three years he’s thrown his curveball around 36 percent of the time, while decreasing his fastball usage.

However, I find it hard to believe that Wainwright would play in a different uniform and leave St. Louis, who could also use his services.

Like with Lester, I would expect the Braves to get in a bidding war for Wainwright. But if he wants to take a cheap one-year deal with a team that has a good shot at winning a World Series again, then I think he makes a lot of sense to help out this young rotation.