St. Louis Cardinals ace Adam Wainwright will have Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and miss the entire season.
Cardinals general manager John Mozeliak confirmed the news Thursday at the team's spring training facility in Jupiter, Fla. He said he learned the severity of the injury Wednesday night after the 29-year-old pitcher sought a second opinion from Dr. Lewis Yocum in Los Angeles.
"It's not a real surprise to us but certainly a disappointment," Mozeliak said. "As we look to the future now we certainly believe we still have a strong starting rotation. Now we're going to have to look to try to fill it in terms of a fifth spot."
Wainwright, who felt stiffness in his arm after Monday's throwing session, won 20 games last year and was runner-up for the NL Cy Young Award. His loss leaves the team with a big hole in a starting rotation that for now includes Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse, Jaime Garcia and Jake Westbrook.
"That's a big guy to miss," Lohse said. "We still got to go out there and play. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us. We still have to go out there and do our jobs."
The Cardinals entered spring training with a rotation that Mozeliak said he would stack up against any in baseball.
"You're losing an ace," Mozeliak said. "It's not something you can replace overnight. I would also say we have four quality pitchers. It's not exactly like we have no bullets left."
Manager Tony La Russa said Wednesday, before learning the severity of the injury, that he doesn't expect the Cardinals to try to replace Wainwright through a trade or free-agent signing of someone such as Kevin Millwood or possibly Pedro Martinez.
But that could change.
"You follow camps and see if something develops where it's a good fit," La Russa said. "But right now it's not a good fit because we're going to cover it from within. We'll pay attention though, that's part of what you do in spring training. We have scouts all over and we'll watch box scores."
La Russa has "six or seven" pitchers in camp who will have the opportunity to join the rotation.
"Guys are assigned at least a couple of appearances over the first eight to 10 games and then a lot of those decisions make themselves," La Russa said.
The list is headed by reliever Kyle McClellan and includes P.J. Walters, Lance Lynn, Adam Ottavino, Ian Snell, Brian Tallet and Brandon Dickson. McClellan and Tallet are penciled in to join the Cardinals' bullpen.
Walters, Lynn, Ottavino and Dickson helped comprise the Triple-AA Memphis staff for most of last season.
La Russa sees plenty of work for the candidates during early spring training games.
"Early it's not a problem," he said. "Even if you want to give a guy a look or something the squeeze comes after you've gone through the group twice, when you start really getting the guys [work] that are on the club. So we'll see where we are."
Tommy John surgery reconstructs the ulnar collateral ligament, replacing it with a tendon from elsewhere in the body. The procedure, named after the pitcher who was the first professional athlete to successfully have it done back in 1974, requires months of recovery.
Mozeliak said he spoke to Wainwright late Wednesday.
"Obviously he's down," Mozeliak said, "but he certainly understands what's at stake and he's disappointed, but I think he's also relieved to know what the next step looks like."
The 6-foot-7 Wainwright went 20-11 with a 2.42 ERA last season, making his first All-Star team and finishing behind Philadelphia's Roy Halladay in Cy Young balloting. His 2.93 ERA since 2007 trails only Halladay, and no NL pitcher threw more than Wainwright's 463 1/3 innings during the past two seasons.
In 2009, Wainwright led the NL in wins (19), innings (233) and starts (34), winning a Gold Glove while finishing third in Cy Young voting.
Wainwright felt soreness toward the end of last season and he didn't pitch in September. He had minor arm issues in 1998 and 2004. His surgery has not yet been scheduled.
Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press
