Cardinals' Miles Mikolas takes subtle shot at Adam Wainwright

Cardinals' Miles Mikolas takes subtle shot at Adam Wainwright originally appeared on The Sporting News

The St. Louis Cardinals have had some incredible players come through their organization over the years. Recently, aside from Hall of Famer Albert Pujols and Yadier Molina, longtime starter Adam Wainwright also carved out a legendary career.

He was in St. Louis for a long time, and at the end of his career, he finally reached 200 wins, a feat that might be harder to reach now more than ever.

A few years after his incredible feat, Cardinals pitcher Miles Mikolas, who was on the team with Wainwright at the time, made a subtle comment on Foul Territory, which was host Erik Kratz called Mikolas out for. Mikolas quickly backtracked and praised Wainwright for his accomplishments, and called him one of his best teammates ever.

Mikolas's Subtle Shot at Wainwright

"I want to play as long as I can, healthy," Mikolas said. "I've seen what it looks like to be old and really struggle through the last couple of months or that last year. I'm not chasing any records. I'm not chasing the Hall of Fame. I don't even know if I'm chasing the Hall of Pretty Good."

Mikolas was responding to a question about his future in baseball. While he intends to play for at least one more year to reach 10 years of service time, his answer, whether intentional or not, could be interpreted as a subtle jab at Wainwright.

Kratz called Mikolas out for his comments, saying, "I'm going to tell (Adam) Wainwright that he was broken down..." But in the middle of Kratz calling out Mikolas, Mikolas said, "No, not him, " implying he was referring to a different pitcher who was struggling at the end of their career as they tried to reach a milestone.

But Kratz doubled and continued to push that Mikolas was referring to Wainwright. "It was definitely Wainwright," Kratz said. "I'm going to make sure he knows that so that we had it here first."

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The comment that Mikolas made, regardless of whether it was intentional or not, could be construed as a jab at Wainwright for playing in the 2023 season to reach 200 career wins. Mikolas went on to praise Wainwright for his incredible feat and the work needed to reach such a milestone.

"Again, I've seen what that looks like, and that's a lot of work. It's a lot of work. And he was chasing numbers, he was chasing 200 wins." Mikolas said. "You're talking about a guy who used every single bullet to get 200 wins; it was an incredible thing to watch. ... Best teammate ever."

Wainwright, in his final season, was 41 years old and needed five wins to reach 200 in his career. He started 21 games in his final season, finishing with a 5-11 record with a 7.40 ERA and -1.9 WAR.

It was the worst year of his career by far, but he managed to reach 200 career wins, and did so in late September on a seven-inning shutout against the Milwaukee Brewers.

While Mikolas's initial comments might've been a subtle shot at Wainwright, he backtracked and praised the veteran pitcher shortly after being called out by Kratz.

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