Last week, I did a piece detailing why I thought the Cardinals holding on to Ryan Helsley was a huge mistake. I still believe that to be true, but I also understand that this is out of our control as fans. I won’t detail why I think trading him is a good idea, as you’ve heard my opinion on this several times by now. But I will focus on another player on an expiring contract that could bring back a decent haul.
Today, we’re going to focus on Erick Fedde, who wasn’t bad with the Cardinals but obviously wasn’t dominant. He was picked up in the Tommy Edman deal, which looks pretty bad from the Cardinals perspective now that Edman has an NLCS MVP trophy to his name.
Still, Fedde came back from the KBO and performed quite well for the most part, especially when considering his ugly stint with the Nationals. He made 31 starts this year with the White Sox and Cardinals, going 9-9 with a 3.30 ERA over 177.1 innings of work.
For teams looking for an affordable starter that eats innings, this could be quite the addition. We all saw at the trade deadline that the price has gone up for rental pitching, even if said pitcher is struggling.
The best example of this is Yusei Kikuchi, who despite going 4-9 with a 4.75 ERA with the Blue Jays cost the Astros three top prospects in Jake Bloss, Joey Loperfido and Will Wagner. He has since signed with the Angels, but it just goes to show that you can get a solid haul for a rental starter these days.
Because Fedde’s stats were much better than Kikuchi’s in 2024 and because it’s easier to get a haul of Major League ready players in the offseason than at the trade deadline, I think it would be wise for the Cardinals to at least consider dealing him. I find it hard to believe that the Cardinals are going to find any takers for Steven Matz.
But even if you put Matz in the bullpen, it isn’t going to be super easy for young guys like Michael McGreevy, Sem Robberse, Gordon Graceffo or Zack Thompson to claim a rotation spot in spring training. The Cardinals already have Sonny Gray, Andre Pallante and Fedde, and while I don’t think Miles Mikolas deserves a spot in the rotation, he still could block younger guys. The same can be said for Fedde.
Obviously, Fedde deserves to be in the rotation, unlike Mikolas and Matz. That’s why it makes sense to shop Fedde at his highest value and see what you can get. A haul for him won’t be quite the same as what a haul for Helsley would look like, but it’s worth it to shop him in my opinion.
Plus, if the Cardinals are going to go for Roki Sasaki like John Mozeliak said, they need to clear a rotation spot and still have opportunities available for other young pitchers if they’re serious about this “reset.” Sasaki himself is quite young, too, so he could then be a part of that mix.
But with starting pitching in such high demand these days, it makes sense to make him available. If they aren’t going to capitalize on Helsley’s value when it’s at its highest, they have to at least take advantage of another player’s value. Fedde would be the logical choice in that case.
He won’t be back in 2026, and his contract is quite cheap, so teams likely wouldn’t be turned off by him.