"I just think it's impossible to call out innings in spring training," he said. "The competitor I am is not going to allow me to talk about 150 innings. That's not a goal. It's not to say the boss is not in charge. But that's not a reasonable goal for me. And neither is 200 innings. I'd feel bad saying something on the high end. I don't think you can set that now."

Wainwright can't envision a scenario in which he is not part of the opening day rotation. Nor does he see a reason why he wouldn't make at least 32-33 starts. (He made 67 total in his last two healthy seasons.)

"My expectation is to make it very hard for them to keep me out of games," he said.

His own clubhouse offers support. Chris Carpenter required ligament replacement surgery in 2007. Jaime Garcia needed the same in 2008. Examples abound of pitchers who have returned to dominance after the procedure.

"I look at Tim Hudson, Jaime, Carp and Josh Johnson. Those guys were able to throw the ball outstanding after they were done with this," he said. "Where you look at it, the guys who were really good before they had Tommy John (surgery) were just as good or better when they came back. Why would I look anywhere else than that?"