Michael Wacha

Bats R Throws R6'6" 215 lbBorn 1991 Iowa City, USADebut 2013Team KC2x All-StarDraft 2012 R1 #19 St. Louis Cardinals, Texas A&MContract 3 yr/$51M (25-27)+28 cl opt 2026: $18,000,000

Awards: NLCS MVP

Projections

Season	BF	K%	BB%	HR%	1B%	XBH%	PITCH+
2026	604	18.2	6.5	3.04	20.6	6.45	102.2
2027							101.4
2028							100.5

Projected rates are per plate appearance or batter faced; counting stats scale with projected playing time. Statcast measurements inform these projections as inputs and are reported as measurements, not projected.

Most similar through age 33

His ten closest age-33 comparables averaged 102 PITCH+ the next season; 10 of 10 played. Averages cover only the players who got a next season, which is why the played count matters.

#	Player	Through	PITCH+ then	Next season	Next PA / BF
1	Kevin Gausman	2024	102.5	113.3	775
2	Randy Wolf	2010	99.5	98.5	903
3	Nathan Eovaldi	2023	100.3	104.9	696
4	Jon Lester	2017	106.3	100.0	761
5	Kyle Lohse	2012	99.4	105.1	806
6	Mike Minor	2021	102.3	77.7	455
7	Ervin Santana	2016	100.6	110.9	864
8	J. A. Happ	2016	99.6	106.7	626
9	Jason Hammel	2016	98.8	97.0	804
10	Chris Bassitt	2022	105.2	103.2	826

Batting

Year	Team	G	PA	R	H	2B	RBI	SB	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HIT+
2025	KC	31	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2024	KC	29	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2023	SD	24	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2022	BOS	23	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2021	TB	30	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	-104.9
2020	NYM	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2019	STL	29	39	3	6	1	3	0	0	21	0.167	0.167	0.194	0.361	-12.1
2018	STL	15	32	3	2	0	1	0	1	9	0.080	0.115	0.080	0.195	-55.4
2017	STL	30	55	3	2	0	3	0	1	22	0.043	0.062	0.043	0.106	-84.9
2016	STL	27	45	1	1	0	0	0	3	22	0.026	0.095	0.026	0.121	-74.7
2015	STL	30	62	5	8	1	4	1	4	20	0.154	0.214	0.173	0.387	-0.9
2014	STL	19	32	1	1	0	2	0	0	18	0.034	0.034	0.034	0.069	-113.6
2013	STL	15	22	0	3	0	3	0	0	10	0.143	0.143	0.143	0.286	-40.5
Career		310	290	16	23	2	16	1	9	125	0.092	0.123	0.100	0.222	-52.3

Pitching

Year	Team	W	L	ERA	G	GS	SV	IP	BF	HR	BB	SO	PITCH+
2027 proj									604				101.4
2026*									632				102.8	100.2	103.0
2025	KC	10	13	3.86	31	31	0	172.7	716	15	45	126	104.9	99.7	104.6
2024	KC	13	8	3.35	29	29	0	166.7	685	17	45	145	105.9	103.4	109.3
2023	SD	14	4	3.22	24	24	0	134.3	553	15	43	124	108.5	99.0	107.5
2022	BOS	11	2	3.32	23	23	0	127.3	515	18	31	104	104.6	100.6	105.3
2021	TB	3	5	5.05	29	23	0	124.7	528	23	31	121	93.3	99.6	92.9
2020	NYM	1	4	6.62	8	7	0	34.0	156	9	7	37	77.3	98.9	76.1
2019	STL	6	7	4.76	29	24	0	126.7	562	26	55	104	86.8	98.7	85.5
2018	STL	8	2	3.20	15	15	0	84.3	355	9	36	71	108.5	101.3	109.8
2017	STL	12	9	4.13	30	30	0	165.7	701	17	55	158	100.6	99.5	100.1
2016	STL	7	7	5.09	27	24	0	138.0	606	15	45	114	92.1	100.9	93.1
2015	STL	17	7	3.38	30	30	0	181.3	762	19	58	153	106.8	102.3	109.1
2014	STL	5	6	3.20	19	19	0	107.0	447	6	33	94	108.0
2013	STL	4	1	2.78	15	9	0	64.7	260	5	19	65	113.4
Career		111	75	3.89	309	288	0	1627.3	6846	194	503	1416	101.6		102.1

Statcast

Year	PA	EV	LA	Barrel%	HardHit%	Whiff%	Chase%	xBA	xSLG	xwOBA	Sprint
2021	3					40.0	25.0	0.000	0.000	0.000
2019	39	81.9	6.6	0.0	16.7	34.7	19.2	0.095	0.103	0.088	24.3
2018	32	79.3	-1.4	0.0	0.0	20.3	20.0	0.045	0.052	0.069	26.1
2017	55	86.0	-2.7	0.0	12.5	33.0	16.9	0.089	0.101	0.098	25.5
2016	45	81.8	-14.5	0.0	10.0	36.4	22.9	0.042	0.049	0.089	24.4
2015	62	83.0	2.5	0.0	13.2	31.4	34.0	0.143	0.178	0.181	25.4

Fielding

Year	Team	Pos	G	Inn	PO	A	E	DP	Fld%	Runs saved
2025	KC	P	31	173	10	11	0	1	1.000	-0.2
2024	KC	P	29	167	9	20	0	3	1.000	+2.8
2023	SD	P	24	134	3	5	0	1	1.000	-0.7
2022	BOS	P	23	127	8	13	0	0	1.000	+0.4
2021	TB	P	29	125	7	8	0	2	1.000	-0.3
2020	NYM	P	8	34	2	3	0	0	1.000	-0.2
2019	STL	P	29	127	11	12	1	2	0.958	-0.9
2018	STL	P	15	84	2	8	1	0	0.909	+0.6
2017	STL	P	30	166	13	20	0	2	1.000	-0.4
2016	STL	P	27	138	21	22	1	2	0.977	+0.7
2015	STL	P	30	181	18	29	3	0	0.940	+2.1
2014	STL	P	19	107	12	13	0	1	1.000
2013	STL	P	15	65	3	6	1	0	0.900

Runs saved covers the Statcast era; for catchers it includes framing.

Minor leagues

Year	Level	Team	Side	PA / BF	Line	AVG / ERA
2013	AAA	Memphis Redbirds	Pit	333	85.0 IP, 22% K	2.65
2012	AA	Springfield Cardinals	Pit	30	8.0 IP, 57% K	1.12
2012	A+	Palm Beach Cardinals	Pit	26	8.0 IP, 62% K	0.00

Splits

Year	vs LHP	vs RHP	Home	Away
2021		0.000		0.000
2019	0.180	0.157	0.113	0.198
2018	0.300	0.035	0.120	0.064
2017	0.090	0.046	0.033	0.089
2016	0.000	0.094	0.047	0.105
2015	0.315	0.152	0.206	0.179

wOBA by split, from pitch level data, 2015 on. For pitchers the split is the batter side faced.

Postseason batting

Year	G	AB	R	RBI	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2021	1	0	0	0	0
2015	1	2	0	0	2	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
2014	1	0	0	0	0
2013	5	7	1	1	5	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000
Career	8	9	1	1	7	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000

Postseason pitching

Year	W	L	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	HR	BB	SO	WHIP
2024	0	1	5.49	2	2	8.2	10	1	4	5	1.71
2021	0	0	20.25	1	0	2.7	9	1	0	4	3.38
2015	0	1	8.31	1	1	4.3	6	3	3	5	2.08
2014	0	1	81.00	1	0	0.3	2	1	1	0	9.00
2013	4	1	2.64	5	5	30.7	16	3	12	33	0.91
Career	4	4	5.26	10	8	46.2	43	9	20	47	1.36

Salaries

Year	Team	Salary
2016	STL	$539,000
2015	STL	$520,000
2014	STL	$510,000

Public salary records run through 2016; current contract data is on the roadmap.