Adam Wainwright inked a five-year, $97.5 million contract extension with the Cardinals last March, just eight months from what would have been his first brush with the free agent market. That deal looks like an absolute bargain for the Cards in the wake of the seven-year, $215 million pact that Clayton Kershaw signed last week with the Dodgers, but Wainwright has no regrets about the particular course he took.

The ace right-hander spoke to fans and reporters Saturday at the Cardinals’ annual Winter Warmup at a downtown St. Louis hotel. Derrick Goold of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch collected the money quotes:

“Heck no. No. Not at all,” Wainwright said when asked if the $215 million Kershaw deal left him envious. “I’m happy for him. Absolutely not. I was so happy to go into this offseason and not have to worry about being a free agent. I’m right where I want to be. People ask me the same thing about the deal I signed before. Do you have any regrets about signing the deal early? I have no regrets. Once I signed that deal, that was the deal I wanted to sign. I didn’t have to sign it. We worked to get to a number where I felt made it fair for both sides. This is where I wanted to be. Do I think I could have made more money on the free agent market? Absolutely. … But you can’t buy happiness. I’m not going to be happier anywhere else than where I am right now.”

“I have got two rings already,” the 32-year-old Wainwright concluded. “Great memories here. My favorite color is red now. I just feel like I bleed Cardinal red. There is no other color I want to wear.”

Waino had a 2.94 ERA and 219 strikeouts in a league-high 241 2/3 innings last season.

He then made five postseason starts for the National League champions.

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