DENVER — After looking for ways in the trade market to open a spot in the rotation and replace struggling starter Erick Fedde, the Cardinals decided not to wait for another team's interest and made a unilateral move Wednesday morning.
The Cardinals designated Fedde for assignment to immediately clear a spot on the 40-player roster and that opening in the rotation.
The Cardinals will continue to explore the market for a team interested in trading for Fedde or they will pass him through waivers. A team can choose to pick up the right-hander and the remainder of his $7.5 million salary off waivers or attempt to jump ahead of other teams with a trade. If Fedde clears waivers, he'll be able to sign for a prorated major-league minimum.
The Cardinals would be on the hook for the remainder of his salary.
Fedde, 32, allowed six runs in three innings Tuesday night as the Cardinals lost 8-4 to the Colorado Rockies. More details of his outing and his thoughts about his struggles are below. In 20 starts for the Cardinals, he was 3-10 with a 5.22 ERA. He had gone seven consecutive decisions without a win. Since being acquired a year ago in a three-team trade at the deadline, Fedde has gone 5-15 in 30 starts for the Cardinals with a 4.69 ERA.
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More coverage coming to the Post-Dispatch and throughout the day. This story below was published at 5:45 a.m. ӣƵ time with comments from Fedde and it outlines the Cardinals' considerations that got them to this decision.
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In the clubhouse after he failed again to take advantage of the extended opportunity the Cardinals gave him to remain in the rotation, Erick Fedde provided the most succinct answer yet for the dilemma he’s forced upon the club as the trade deadline approaches.
“Obviously, something has to change,” he said.
Fedde allowed six runs in the first three innings of the Cardinals’ 8-4 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Tuesday night at Coors Field, and he did not take the mound for a fourth inning.
The abbreviated outing was the latest in a long stretch of struggles for the right-hander who has not won a game since his complete-game shutout on May 9 in Washington. Fedde has lost seven consecutive decisions, and the Cardinals have lost 10 of his previous dozen games. At a pivotal time in club’s season – with the team sinking in the standings as the front office weighs a sell off at the deadline – the Cardinals turned again to Fedde to assert his place in the rotation and they were down 6-0 before he collected his eighth out.
“The truth is I’ve been awful,” Fedde said at his locker late Tuesday night in the Coors Field visitors’ clubhouse. “There is nothing more (to say). Putting the team in terrible spots. Giving up runs early. Putting the batters in tough spots. Confidence, for sure, an all-time low. … The team deserves better.”
The team is considering its options.
And this week has provided adjacent considerations.
Fedde’s dud came 24 hours after right-hander Michael McGreevy pitched seven strong innings for a win at Coors Field for the Cardinals. McGreevy has been a reliable spot starter capable of outings like Monday when he allowed only two runs on meager hits through seven innings. Instead of returning McGreevy to Class AAA Memphis as they have in his previous four appearances, the Cardinals kept McGreeevy on the active roster with plans of utilizing the right-hander in the coming home stand. Role? TBD. But, FYI, a start will be available. QED.
Perhaps ASAP.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol said Tuesday that he and pitching coach Dusty Blake and other coaches will gather late that evening to discuss Fedde’s next step.
The Cardinals have been discussing the rotation all week and expect changes to it in the near future. They introduced McGreevy for a start Monday to give lefty Matthew Liberatore an extended break as he adds to a career high in innings. Liberatore will start Saturday against the Padres at Busch Stadium. The Cardinals have discussed how to adjust Andre Pallante’s schedule after Wednesday’s start as he approaches a career high in workload. A six-man rotation is part of the discussion but so is putting McGreevy into a five-man rotation.
Fedde’s performance over the past month informs that plan.
“Obviously, we know it wasn’t good enough,” Marmol said. “We’ll sit down here and discusses what’s next for him.”
The Cardinals acquired Fedde a year ago at the deadline in a three-team trade that included the White Sox and the Dodgers and sent Tommy Edman to LA in time to be the National League Championship Series MVP for a championship club. Part of the appeal of Fedde was his cost-conscious contract and control until the end of this season when he becomes a free agent. As this year’s July 31 trade deadline approaches, the Cardinals have looked for teams interested in Fedde to make a deal that opens up a spot in the rotation for McGreevy.
Generating potential interest in the right-hander as he struggled through June was part of the calculus the Cardinals made when giving him starts like Tuesday in July.
Between starts, the coaches and Fedde have worked on the crispness of his pitches, especially the cutter, and his mechanics to improve that. At the same time, he described the importance of the mentality he’s adopted for the starts the Cardinals continued to give him.
“I try to go in with that fresh thought of this is going to be the one that turns it around,” Fedde said. “Giving up first-inning runs, it’s still my job as a profession not to let that snowball. Just having done a great job of it. Of course I put pressure on myself. I know this team is counting on me when they’re giving me the chance every fifth day to try to win them a ballgame. Just got to be better.”
A significant drag on Fedde’s performance in the past two months has been a misbehaving cut fastball and his commitment to using it.
The cutter was a key part of his revival since returning for Korean’s KBO ahead of the 2024 season. It gives him a fastball to challenge left-handed hitters, and he described Tuesday night how it’s also a pitch he can elevate as a fastball. The cutter is a high-reward pitch that can be high-risk if it’s erratic. A good cutter snaps bats. A bad cutter finds the barrel. The first two extra-base hits off Fedde on Tuesday both came on the cutter.
At least once he shook off Pedro Pages’ call to throw the cutter.
It was socked for extra bases.
“It’s just been something I’ve leaned on my whole career,” Fedde said. “When I get it up and in, it’s a good pitch for me. Hasn’t been good. Haven’t commanded it well.”
The second batter of the game for the Rockies, Mickey Moniak drilled a cutter for a 450-foot home run and a 1-0 lead. The fifth batter of the second inning, .163-batting No. 9 hitter Adael Amador drilled the third cutter he saw for a two-run double and a 3-0 lead. In the third inning, singles seeded the bases and a sinker down the middle cleared them. To Ryan McMahon, the third baseman who has brought teams like the Yankees to Coors Field to scout him for the deadline, Fedde fell behind 3-0. The right-hander then left a sinker over the middle of the plate that McMahon jumped for a three-run homer and a 6-0 lead.
“A lot of good swings. A lot of hard contact,” Marmol said. “Wasn’t good enough.”
Fedde struck out five and got 12 swings and misses in the brief start. Eight of those swings and misses came on his sweeping slider, but that pitch wasn’t as effective without the sinker and cutter as complements. Of the 35 pitches Fedde threw, 24 were strikes and 10 were put in play. Seven of them fell for hits.
Fedde said late Tuesday night that his goal is to remain a starter and correct his issues while remaining in the rotation. The Cardinals have shared that view for at least the past four weeks, while acknowledging briefly that Fedde’s spot in the rotation was under scrutiny. Including Tuesday’s start, Fedde is 0-7 in his previous 12 starts and he’s allowed 93 baserunners in his previous 55 innings. His ERA in that span is 6.38.
He has more starts since May 1 that he’s allowed at least six runs (three) than starts when he’s pitched six innings (two).
Fedde said “in a perfect world” he would “love to stay as a starter” and continue to get that chance as the Cardinals reach the final 60 games of the regular season.
They are discussing alternative roles.
“I’ve been clear,” Marmol said. “It wasn’t good enough.”
The rookie right-hander pitched a season-high seven strong innings in a 6-2 victory against Rockies, and the Cardinals are thinking of ending his yo-yo between majors and Triple-A.
Colorado laces right-hander for six runs in three innings on the way to an 8-4 victory and the Cardinals' 10th loss in the past 12 games started by Fedde.
As recent results and the standings nudge the Cardinals toward being a seller at the deadline, Marmol says the team is the "least distracted" by the uncertainty.
