ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - Adam Wainwright is just fresh into retirement and already it seems like he has a great career as baseball analyst ahead of him.
Wainwright is working as an analyst for FOX this postseason. The former Cardinals pitcher is paired with longtime Chicago White Sox catcher, one-time Cardinal A.J. Pierzynski, Fox play-by-play Adam Amin and longtime Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci to call the Houston Astros and Minnesota Twins ALDS series.
Wainwright received plenty of praise during Tuesday's game between the Astros and Twins when he started to analyze Twins pitcher Sonny Gray's sweeper and explain the difference between a sweeper and a slider during the second inning of the game.
The work and description by Wainwright was significant because Gray's sweeper was deemed near unhittable, as opponents only hit .097 against it all year. The last hitter to hit a home run against Gray's sweeper, you had to look back over 450 days ago, when White Sox Outfielder Luis Robert hit it back in May 2022.
The Astros on the other hand, absolutely turned a pitch that was deemed unhittable into a very hittable pitch all game Tuesday, including allowing two home runs on the pitch to Astros first baseman Jose Abreu and third baseman Alex Bregman.
The work by Wainwright to explain the difference the sweeper and slider earned praise from viewers on X, formerly known as Twitter.
It's incredibly nice to see the praise that Wainwright received during his brief analyst work so far and shows that maybe Wainwright does have a knack for broadcasting.
This, of course isn't Wainwright's first foray into broadcasting. Wainwright worked as an analyst for FOX the last two postseasons with Wainwright working with Pierzynski and Amin during the White Sox ALDS matchup against the Astros in 2021 and a 2020 NLDS matchup between the Atlanta Braves and Miami Marlins.
Of course plenty of former Cardinals players have had careers in TV and broadcasting on a national level like Keith Hernandez, the late-Tim McCarver, Jim Kaat, John Smoltz, Joe Magrane and now most recently Albert Pujols with MLB Network. Wainwright is set to be the next Cardinals player to have a presence on the national level.