Cardinals Could Trade Breakout Star From 2024 Dodgers-White Sox Deal Next Summer

St. Louis could send the veteran packing again in 2025

Apr 16, 2023; St. Louis, Missouri, USA; A general view of the St. Louis Cardinals scoreboard as a plane passes by during the seventh inning of a game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Busch Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jeff Curry-Imagn Images / Jeff Curry-Imagn Images

The St. Louis Cardinals could continue their playoff drought through next season and if that's the case, it wouldn't be shocking to see several impending free agents traded at the deadline.

The Cardinals have several hurlers with expiring contracts heading into next year, including 2021 Trevor Hoffman National League Reliever of the Year Ryan Helsley, who becomes a free agent for the first time in his career next offseason.

Several hurlers could be moved at the trade deadline next summer with the Cardinals rebuilding, including a veteran star acquired in 2024 from the Chicago White Sox in a deal that sent former St. Louis homegrown utility man Tommy Edman to the Los Angeles Dodgers.

"He (Erick Fedde) was a first-round pick of the (Washington) Nationals back in 2014, and the Nats thought they might have had a future Stephen Strasburg on their hands," MLB.com's Will Leitch wrote Thursday. "They didn’t. He never could quite get it together in the bigs -- he had a career 5.41 ERA in Washington -- and eventually decamped to the Korean Baseball Organization in 2023 to figure out his game. He returned to the States in 2024 an entirely different pitcher, putting up a 3.11 ERA for the White Sox, before being traded to the Cardinals and notching 10 solid starts. He's now a key piece of the Cardinals rotation, maybe their most stable one outside of Sonny Gray, and depending on what happens with the Cardinals this year, he could be a trade deadline acquisition once again before becoming a free agent."

Fedde logged a 9-9 record with a 3.30 ERA, 154-to-52 stikeout-to-walk ratio, .233 batting average against and a 1.16 WHIP in 177 1/3 innings pitched for the White Sox and Cardinals in 2024.

Trading Fedde next summer would make sense if the Cardinals' youth core struggles to compete in 2025. With Gray, Fedde and perhaps Helsley returning next season, St. Louis could pull things together and contend for the NL Central.

However, the Cardinals are more likely to look to sell at the trade deadline. If Fedde were to be dealt next summer, he could provide St. Louis with a handsome return -- as long as he continues to pitch well.

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