Adam Wainwright Injury: Updates on Cardinals Star's Abdomen and Recovery

Adam Wainwright is starting 2015 the same way he ended 2014: battling an injury. This time, the St. Louis Cardinals ace is dealing with an abdominal issue.    

Continue for updates.

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Wainwright to Make First Start on Saturday

Tuesday, March 17

Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch confirmed that Adam Wainwright will make his first spring start on Saturday, his first since suffering an abdominal strain.

The Associated Press, via ESPN.com, reported on the plan for Wainwright leading up to the start:

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Wainwright had a mild abdominal strain early in spring training. He has thrown a pair of bullpen sessions since the injury, including about 40 pitches in a simulated game Monday. Wainwright plans to throw another bullpen session on Thursday, and manager Mike Matheny expects him to toss 50-60 pitches Saturday.

Matheny said Tuesday that if all goes well, Wainwright would start every five days for the remainder of spring training, a timetable that may allow Wainwright to pitch the major league season opener at the Chicago Cubs on April 5.

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On March 16, Wainwright commented on his recent progress, via Goold. He said he's ready for a real game:  

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"Game, I think," Wainwright said when asked what's next. "Real game is next. Whenever they tell me to pitch is when I'll be pitching."

"I wanted to command my fastball better today," Wainwright said. "My off-speed has been pretty good. When I am locating my fastball to both sides of the plate then it just makes my off-speed even better. I wanted to go out there and do that before I got into a real game."

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On March 8, Wainwright threw his first live batting practice since being diagnosed with an abdominal strain, via MLB.com's Jenifer Langosch. Langosch reported that Wainwright estimated he threw 35 pitches of two simulated innings.

Langosch also provided comments from Wainwright following the session:

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"Today, I know I got some good late action on my sinker and my slider and my cutters," Wainwright said. "I threw a couple really good changeups. But I also found out that I need to work on my fastball command a bit. When I'm commanding that, everything else falls into place."

With the Cardinals four weeks away from their Opening Night matchup with the Cubs, Wainwright may only have time for three spring starts if he wants that Opening Day assignment. Already subscribing to the less-now-is-more-later philosophy, Wainwright isn't bothered by the decreased workload.

"We're out there with a purpose," Wainwright said, including Lackey in his assessment. "We throw as few of pitches as we can to get the exact same work that we need done and then we don't mess around after that. When you save pitches between games, it does make a difference at the end of the season."

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On March 2, Langosch provided video from Wainwright's first bullpen session since suffering his injury: 

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Wainwright Has Abdominal Strain

Thursday, Feb. 26

Adam Wainwright was diagnosed with an abdominal strain, according to Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. General manager John Mozeliak told Goold that the diagnosis was the "best news we could have gotten."

Wainwright later commented on the news via his Twitter account: