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While deciding how to begin this column, Erick Fedde walked another batter.

It’s always rough when one of the good guys gets bad. It used to pain me to rip the likes of Paul DeJong or Tyler O’Neill.

Fedde is a good guy.

But he’s arguably the worst pitcher at this current time in the National League (although one of his own teammates could also be in the conversation). If the Cardinals are serious about contending for a playoff spot, they’ll pull the plug on Fedde.

Is Fedde the Cards’ only problem? Goodness, no. For ӣ����Ƶ fans, that nine-game road trip wasn’t simply a roller-coaster ride but like that one summer when Six Flags made the Screamin’ Eagle ride backward.

Their inability to hit left-handed pitching is infuriating for those who watch (though these days, with games on Roku and Apple TV,+ not everyone can). The nation witnessed the abomination that was Sunday’s game on ESPN. Southpaw Matthew Boyd, albeit an All-Star, carved up the Cardinals with nine strikeouts (in only five innings).

Against lefties, the Cardinals are 19th in baseball in on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS, .665). They’re eighth-best against righties (.736). You know the deal: The Cards’ great right-handed hitter Ivan Herrera is injured. And the sidelined Jordan Walker hits right-handed (though sometimes it looks like he hits without a bat). Herrera could be back before the July 31 trade deadline. But it’s clear that the Cards need another right-handed bat at the trade deadline, preferably a fellow who is also defensively versatile.

That’s, of course, if they’re going to be buyers at the trade deadline.

I believe they’ll be able to remain in the playoff hunt by then. Heck, they play six opponents before the deadline, and sans San Diego, the other five are under .500 (the Nationals, Braves, Diamondbacks, Rockies and Marlins). The Cardinals entered Monday a game out of the last wild-card spot and 6 1/2 games out of first in the division.

But again, they need to immediately improve some stuff — even stuff that had been going well, be it hitting with runners in scoring position or Masyn Winn hitting at all or getting the bullpen rested and rejuvenated (Monday’s off-day is encouraging). As for the runners in scoring position, the Cardinals are just not a home run-hitting team, so they need to execute those at-bats with hits because they can’t rely on a homer later.

Now, as I recently wrote, I’m optimistic that the offense can churn again. But part of that is, simply, availability. Key guys are injured, while others are playing but not at 100%.

But first things first: replace Fedde with Michael McGreevy in the rotation. Fedde is 3-9 with a 4.79 ERA — and his expected numbers on Statcast assert he’s even worse. In his past three starts, including Sunday’s pathetic performance at Wrigley Field, he has allowed 17 runs in just 10 innings, while walking nine and striking out two.

The youngster McGreevy has already been the “sixth starter” in the rotation, just basically based in Memphis. He’s proven he can pitch up here. But yes, if he replaces Fedde and one of the five starters gets hurt, the next-best option might be Ricky Horton out of the radio booth. Alas, John Mozeliak and his staff didn’t develop much starting pitching depth in recent years.

But the Cards, now 6 1/2 out of first place, can’t afford to keep Fedde in there. So go with McGreevy and hope it gets you to the trade deadline as buyers or, at least, as “not sellers.”

And while winning the division seems more and more daunting — those Cubbies sure look good, and they’ll only get better with deadline moves — the Cards are in the wild-card mix, right in there with the Mets, Brewers, Padres, Giants and, I suppose, Reds. This ӣ����Ƶ transition season, it seems, still could extend into October.

But as of now, it’s not about the full schedule; it’s about the schedule leading up to the trade deadline on July 31.

And that starts with Sonny Gray’s start Tuesday against the Nationals, a team in disarray — the manager and general manager were just fired this past weekend. But guess who’s scheduled to start against the Nats on Thursday?

Miles Mikolas.

One optimistic thing about him: He was getting shellacked so much against the Cubs last Friday, perhaps he was tipping his pitches? If that’s the case, they could potentially fix that. Even so, Mikolas has been a Fedde-like problem for a bit now. Credit to him bouncing back from the Boston debacle on April 6.

After May 23, his ERA was a respectable 3.51. Since then? Seven starts and a 7.75 ERA in that stretch. Yet the lack of starter depth means Miles will keep pitching. This is not ideal, but he is, if anything, an innings eater — and, hey, at least he doesn’t walk guys like Fedde does.