Inside The Cardinals

Cardinals $7.5 Million Man Has Turned Heads For Wrong Reasons

The Cardinals hurler has been up-and-down to kick off the season...
Patrick McAvoy|
Feb 26, 2021; Jupiter, Florida, USA; A general view of the St. Louis Cardinals logo on the stadium at Roger Dean Stadium during spring training workouts. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images
Feb 26, 2021; Jupiter, Florida, USA; A general view of the St. Louis Cardinals logo on the stadium at Roger Dean Stadium during spring training workouts. Mandatory Credit: Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images | Jasen Vinlove-Imagn Images

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St. Louis Cardinals

The St. Louis Cardinals have been pretty solid pitching-wise so far this season, but that doesn't mean that everything is perfect.

The rotation as a whole has held up well and one guy who has been a big piece in that is Erick Fedde. He has a 3.43 ERA so far this season in four starts, which is perfectly acceptable. While this is the case, FanSided's Josh Jacobs listed him as one of four players he's worried about.

"On the surface, Erick Fedde has been effective for the Cardinals in 2025," Jacobs said. "He has a 1-2 record thus far, but his 3.43 ERA is what you hope to see from him, especially when you take into account that one of those starts was a complete blow-up in Boston, while he's allowed just one earned run in his other 12 innings of work. Here's the thing though, if you look beneath the surface, you'll see a lot of warning signs in Fedde's game this year. Yes, even in his six innings of no-hit baseball against the Pittsburgh Pirates.

"First, Fedde's FIP (4.89), xERA (5.00), xFIP (5.52), and SIERA (5.89) are all drastically higher than his ERA thus far, indicating a fair bit of luck and unsustainable success based on the way he's actually pitching thus far. If you continue to look deeper, things don't look good. Fedde has posted below-average barrel percentages, hard-hit percentages, and average exit velocity numbers from opposing hitters, and yet batters have just a .183 BABIP against him. That's not going to continue if he's allowing hard contact at the rate he is right now."

It seems a little too early to be worried, but the advanced metrics aren't great. He's making just $7.5 million this year, though, so he's a bargain if he can keep things up.

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Patrick McAvoy
PATRICK MCAVOY

Patrick McAvoy's experiences include local and national sports coverage at the New England Sports Network with a focus on baseball and basketball. Outside of journalism, Patrick also is pursuing an MBA at Brandeis University. After quickly rising as one of the most productive writers on the site, he expanded his reach to write for Baseball Essential, a national baseball site in Sports Illustrated Media Group. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding Inside The Cardinals, please reach out to Scott Neville: nevilles@merrimack.edu

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