The Cardinals are shopping right-hander Erick Fedde, reports Katie Woo of The Athletic. The Cardinals are on the buy/sell bubble but Woo says they will pursue Fedde trades regardless of which path they take.
A couple of weeks ago, it was reported that the Cards feel Michael McGreevy is ready for a rotation role in the big leagues. However, he was blocked by the club’s other starters and that remains the case. St. Louis has had remarkable rotation healthy this year. Each of Fedde, Sonny Gray, Miles Mikolas, Andre Pallante and Matthew Liberatore has made at least 18 start this year. McGreevy and Steven Matz have chipped in with a few spot starts, but it has essentially been the same core five all year long. McGreevy was recalled today to make a spot start tonight in order to give Liberatore some extra rest.
With the deadline now just over the horizon, there’s logic to flipping someone to make room for McGreevy, a former first-round pick who is putting up good numbers this year. In 15 Triple-A starts, he has a 3.72 earned run average, 25.5% strikeout rate, 4.9% walk rate and 53.8% ground ball rate.
As mentioned, the Cards appear to be on the border of buying or selling. They attempted to do a reset in the winter but found it difficult to trade their veteran players with no-trade clauses. They decided to mostly stand pat and have hovered in the race this year. They were swept by the Diamondbacks this weekend but are still just 3.5 games back of a playoff spot. If they believe McGreevy is ready for the show, they could flip a starter to add some young talent but still leave the rotation in a decent spot for a stretch run.
Fedde is the most logical guy to move out. Both Gray and Mikolas have full no-trade clauses. When the club was trying to hit the reset button in the offseason, both expressed a preference to stay, quickly squashing trade speculation. Pallante and Liberatore are each young and controllable for years to come. For a club looking to do a reset, it wouldn’t make sense to move those guys out. Fedde, on the other hand, is 32 years old and an impending free agent. He’s not a part of the club’s long-term plans.
The problem is that he has tanked a lot of his value this year. After a successful stint in Korea in 2023, he returned to North America with aplomb last year. Between the White Sox and the Cards, he tossed 177 1/3 innings with a 3.30 ERA, 21.2% strikeout rate, 7.2% walk rate and 42.1% ground ball rate. Here in 2025, everything has gone in the wrong direction. In 98 2/3 innings, he has a 4.83 ERA, 13.5% strikeout rate, 10.7% walk rate and 39.2% ground ball rate.
Given those results, rival clubs won’t be tripping over themselves to acquire Fedde. He might have some value as a live arm on an injury-depleted team, but only as a back-end filler type of role. No one will view him as a capable playoff starter right now. He is making a $7.5MM salary this year, which leaves less than $3MM to be paid out. That would be a bargain if he were pitching to his 2024 levels but it doesn’t look especially attractive now. If the Cards really want to move Fedde and open more starts for McGreevy, perhaps they would be willing to eat some of that money in order to secure a better return.
Photo courtesy of Jeff Curry, Imagn Images
I imagine they can get something for him because hes not paid a ton but hes barely a big leaguer at this point. Him and Mikolas have been worthless all year its time to move on regardless of if the team buys or sells at the deadline.
And since he’s not paid a ton, and has less than $3mm left, paying down that small amount isn’t going to get that much better of a prospect.
I wouldn’t expect anything at all from trading Fedde. The real benefit will be giving McGreevy a full time spot in the rotation.
“St. Louis has had remarkable rotation healthy this year…”
Pitchers starts make all nearly season this.
– Yoda
They might be able to get a sack of baseballs for Fedde.
If they get a sack of baseballs, they will most likely be used baseballs.
I’d shop that ERA as well
There goes our pennant!
There goes our peanut! Fify
They should just cut Mikolas while they’re at it.
Between Mikolas and Fedde, they have lost so many games for the Cards this year. I’d be willing to bet nearly any two pitchers on the farm would have fared better than these two have.
High A prospect and some money and he is all yours
Low A prospect is much more likely, since Fedde’s value is next to nothing.
Promise to fill your clubhouse soda machine and pay for his bus ticket.
Gee getting rid him for nothing is a real plus anyway
Fedde’s given up 20 ER in his past 4 starts. Shipping him out doesn’t make the Cards sellers. I hope they’re not expecting much of a return though.
The time to shop him was in the offseason.
Ryan Helsley too. Missed opportunities.
Helsley is still worth something, but he definitely looks less elite now.
Not sure a borderline number 5 starter is that valuable to a contender
Who said it is?
There’s a sucker born every minute. Trade for Fedde. Yucchhh.
Here is a wild trade to consider:
Yanks send Jazz Chisholm, Jorbit Vivas, Clayton Beeter, and Marcus Stroman who will be a free agent to offset some money coming back for Arenado, Fedde, and Brendan Donovan.
So Cards are basically getting Jazz, Vivas, and Beeter for Donovan moving forward a 60m salary relief.
If the Cardinals traded away Arenado or Donovan it wouldn’t be to get a player with only 1 year of team control in Chisholm.
Are you kidding me? You’re trading away a ton of dead money and getting an all star in Jazz plus two young players. You are basically sending Donovan and 60m to the Yankees for an all star second baseman still under control and two young players. Cardinal fans seem to think Arenado has trade value. You have to give something of value up if a team is taking that awful contract back. He’s having another below average offensive year but still is an above average glove.
The Cardinals dont need an all star 2b if they are trading away a different all star 2b.
I dont think Arenado has trade value. I dont want them to trade him though. That only benefits ownership.
Its not that your suggested trade was unfair it just wouldn’t make sense. If they trade Arenado and Donovan it would be for prospects.
You are getting Vivas and Beeter who are prospects. Donovan is a year older than Jazz. He’s a free agent in 2028. Jazz free agent 2027.
The Cardinals need real prospects not Vivas and Beeter.
Donovan and Arenado for Lombard. That makes sense to me. Cardinals need a long term 3b for sure.
Trash for a future superstar?
What?
That extra year of control makes Donovan significantly more valuable despite being a year older. He also has much better positional flexibility.
Either Gorman or Saggase can be their long term 3B even if Arenado is traded. It’s also Walker’s natural position if he ever figures it out.
They also wouldn’t trade an established All-Star in Donovan for a prospect in the first place.
Not one Yankees fan wants Donovan.
The cardinals target with Yankees should be Spencer Jones. Obviously Fedde or Arenado or both with cash doesn’t equal Jones. But would you give up Arenado, Helsley, Matz, and their choice of one of our OF/Donovan plus cash and we get Beeter as well?
@uvmfiji…if you don’t want Donovan then you don’t know baseball…and as a GM you should quit…lol Yankees don’t want Donovan
I will take Jazz all day and all night over Donovan. As usual, hang on to your fringe players as you overplay your hand. Its the Cardinal way!
He was an all star this year lol He has a gold glove lol
And he’s worse than Jazz. Your point? Winn is your only star player.
He is not worse than Jazz lol that is the most ridiculous statement ever…go look at the stats my friend…Jazz has more home runs and that’s about it lol…let’s not forget jazz plays in that ridiculous stadium with the short right field…im sure that helps him out there…he barely has him on RBIs but that isn’t much…other than that Donovan has a better average, better OPS, better OBP, etc…let’s not forget Donovan can play every where on the diamond and he will be a great defender, hence his gold glove, plus he is the cardinals emergency catcher…he is way more valuable than Jazz and he is clearly better…lol that was easy
Jazz has higher WAR and has been hurt for a quarter of the season. Nick Ahmed is a great defender too. No one is clamoring for your trash second baseman.
lol WAR is such a bulls..t stat…Jazz 2.9 compared to Donny’s 2.5 lol…didn’t the Yankees say this…”we cannot play him at 3rd base anymore because he is a huge defensive liability”…I’m sure Donovan’s WAR would be better if he played with that short porch in right field lol…Jazz doesn’t even compare when you look at all the stats…Donovan is on top of most 2nd baseman stats…Jazz only has him beat with HRs and once again that is most likely due to stadiums…at Busch stadium you have to earn your HRs
The staid Cardinals trading for Jazz?
AreNotO has a full NTC.
I don’t think the Cards want Jazz or Vivas because we have JJ almost ready not to mention a logjam in the middle infield. I think RH OF bat and pitching would interest them though.
as a Reds and WVU fan it almost made me sick when the Cards drafted JJ but I hope he has a HOF career regardless…he’s gonna be the leader of your team for a long time
Why would the Yankees trade a key piece of their team in season? They love Jazz. That’s a silly video game trade
Yup. Zero chance they trade Jazz.
This trade idea is a dog whistle
Mozo the clown
3 more months deeds.
This is big news …who knew???
I hope it’s at Grocery Outlet Bargain Market.
Wait is Grocery Outlet Bargain Market actually a thing? Very Missouri
Better than A-whole Foods.
Wow!Trade for him if you want to lose!
It’s going to be on the waiver wire at this point.
Oooph can they get Tommy Edman back?
Losing Edman isn’t the problem. They’d still have nowhere to play him, even if they do trade Arenado.
He would be there second best infielder and their best outfielder.
I mean if he can bounce back against the Rockies and Marlins with 5 or 6 innings of 2-run ball, who knows? I’m sure most executives have been paying attention the last 8-10 starts, though. They should have traded him over the winter when there was interest. Now they’re going to get significantly less.
McGreevy probably wouldn’t have fared any worse than Fedde over the whole season as well. Oh well…can’t undo that. I really hope that rid themselves of Mikolas too. That dude seriously needs to figure things out.
Everyone on this 40-man roster should be available for a trade, except Sonny, Winn, McGreevy.
Totally unrealistic expectation. The players who have no trade clauses – Miles Mikolas & Nolan Arenado don’t want to go anywhere else.
Miles Mikolas should have been DFA’d earlier this year. His last start he gave up 4 runs in the first inning.
Mikolas believed that his performance was just “two bad pitches, both homers” while adding that his four-inning start was “beyond that, pretty solid.”
He should have been DFA’d immediately after the game.
Release Mikolas and trade Fedde for whatever they can get, and let McGreevy start the rest of the year
Totally agree
It was a mistake to acquire him last year.
They will get a haul for Helsley with this bullpen market
I mean hey, they were able to trade Paul DeJong a few years ago for a Matt Svanson, a solid young reliever. Fedde’s been really hard to watch but we can at least get something in return which is good
Well, DeJong was actually hitting not far from league average while playing good SS defense at the time he was traded. His offense went in the tank again mostly after the trade
However, yes, even veterans who are struggling badly often still have some trade value, like how the Cardinals somehow thought it was a good idea to trade for Shawn Armstrong last year. Surprisingly, he actually pitched well for the short time he was with St. Louis until he got DFAed anyway, and now he’s having a good year with the Rangers.
The Cardinals are in a weird situation where their starting pitching has been TOO healthy this year, which has left McGreevy sitting in AAA for most of the season so far.
Unlike Mikolas, Fedde is better than he seems, since he’s also had a number of quality starts alongside some really bad clunkers, but you’d have to think that McGreevy would be an improvement over both of them in their rotation, especially after his excellent start in Colorado tonight.
If the Cardinals finally pull the trigger on DFAing Mikolas (from which he managed to buy some extra time for himself with a really good start two starts ago), then I think either moving Matz back into the rotation or calling up Graceffo to fill the spot would also improve the rotation.
Mozeliak really blew that one, didn’t he? Fedde was coming off a solid 2024 and in the offseason would have brought back a couple nice pieces. Now the players the Cards will get in return for 2 months of a really bad Fedde are going to be pretty bad themselves.
Shopping for him? For a new jersey, yes.
I’m pretty sure I saw Eric Fedde available in Dollar Tree today. That seems like the appropriate place for him to be “shopped.”
It is spelled “chopping”.