This is the first season since 2004 where Adam Wainwright hasn’t been a part of the St. Louis Cardinals roster.

The veteran starter spent 18 seasons in St. Louis, tossing nearly 2,700 innings over 478 appearances.

Over that entire time and of all the opponents he faced, he identified a pair of Cubs as the toughest at-bats.

On a recent episode of the Like a Farmer podcast (starting at the 36:30 mark), Wainwright reflected on his career and was asked about the hardest hitters he faced.

“The first half of my career, it was a guy named Aramis Ramírez that played for the Cubs, Brewers and the Pirates,” Wainwright said. “I could never get away from him in the National League Central. It was like he followed me around.

“He was batting cleanup behind Derrek Lee in the Cubs lineup when they were really good. I never had a problem with Derrek Lee but I could never get out Aramis Ramírez.”

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Over their careers, Ramírez went 23-for-69 against Wainwright with a .406 on-base percentage and a .625 slugging percentage (1.031 OPS). He also hit 3 homers.

“Aramis hit .400 off me until the very end of his career when he was with the Brewers,” Wainwright said. “I finally started to get him out occassionally but it didn’t matter what I threw him. I think he had some kind of tip.

“But sometimes hitters – and sometimes pitchers, for that matter – they got it against the other guy. They see the ball well or if they’re a pitcher, they just make a perfect pitch. He was one of those guys – it didn’t matter if I threw it in the middle of the plate or 3 feet outside, he was still gonna hit in the gap.”

Ramírez – who was just inducted into the Cubs Hall of Fame earlier this month – retired after the 2015 campaign.

Wainwright went on to pitch for 8 more seasons and over that time, it was another Cub that terrorized him.

“The last couple years, a guy named Ian Happ from the Cubs,” Wainwright said. “I didn’t give up a whole lot of home runs as a big league player until I got really old and started throwing slow.

“But Ian Happ hit 7 home runs off me. He had 3 games where he hit 2 home runs off me in each game. … It’s not easy to hit 2 home runs in a game off a pitcher and he did it in 3 games so I gotta tip my cap to Ian. He had me the last couple years.”

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Happ took Wainwright deep twice on June 24 of last season in London.

During the shortened 2020 campaign, Happ got to Wainwright twice on Sept. 5 but the Cardinals actually won that game 4-2 as those were the only runs the veteran right-hander allowed.

The other instance was late in the 2019 season, on Sept. 28 in St. Louis.

Overall, Happ hit .389/.436/1.056 against Wainwright (1.491 OPS) in 39 plate appearances.

Wainwright pitched 59 games (50 starts) against the Cubs over his 18 seasons, going 19-16 with a 4.05 ERA and 1.33 WHIP. Only the Reds (34) hit more homers off Wainwright than the Cubs (28) throughout his career.