Cardinals' latest roster move proves Brewers dodged a bullet at 2024 trade deadline

The 2025 Milwaukee Brewers head into the midseason trade deadline with a ridiculous amount of starting pitching depth. Already with several major league caliber arms pitching in Triple-A, the Brewers have both Nestor Cortes and Robert Gasser expected to re-join the team from the 60-day IL over the next month.

However, at this time last year, Matt Arnold and the Brewers' front office were scouring the trade market for starting pitching, searching for a place where they could find value without paying the premium prices that were attached to the available frontline starters. In the end, they sent Jakob Junis and Joey Wiemer to the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for Frankie Montas, a deal that has aged fine for the Brewers' front office given Wiemer's numbers in Triple-A this season, and the fact that Montas made a solid postseason start for the Crew last October.

Prior to completing the Montas deal, Brewers fans and MLB insiders alike were linking the team to a different starting pitcher, one that was having a career resurgence with the Chicago White Sox after pitching overseas in the Korea Baseball Organization (KBO) in 2023. The Brewers ultimately missed out on him, and a year removed it's clear they lucked out by not winning the sweepstakes.

Erick Fedde designated for assignment by Cardinals less than a year after they acquired him at the 2024 trade deadline

On July 29 of last year, the St. Louis Cardinals, who were two games out of the playoff picture at the time, landed Erick Fedde in a three-team deal involving the White Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers. The deal landed Tommy Edman and Michael Kopech in LA, Miguel Vargas and prospects in Chicago, and Tommy Pham and Fedde in St. Louis. At the time, it appeared as if the Dodgers and Cardinals had collectively fleeced the White Sox, but a year removed, the story looks much different.

When the Cardinals acquired Fedde, he was sporting a 3.11 ERA through 21 starts with the White Sox. His two-year, $15 million deal looked incredibly team-friendly for a pitcher of his caliber, and the Cardinals were hoping that his addition to their starting rotation would propel them back to the postseason. It didn't. However, Fedde was serviceable in his time with the Red Birds in 2024, posting a 3.72 ERA in 10 starts.

Then came 2025. Fedde got off to a slow start, posting a 4.68 ERA through March/April. He recovered slightly in May with five solid starts, but that performance only ended up working against the Cardinals as it lengthened a leash that should have been cut sooner than it ultimately was. Things got really ugly in the last week of June and continued up until Fedde's last start with the Cardinals last night. In his final seven starts with St. Louis, Fedde allowed more earned runs than innings pitched, lost five games, and posted a WHIP north of 2.00.

While the Brewers likely would have moved on from Fedde long before the Cardinals did, the fact that they avoided the situation altogether should remedy some of the disappointment that Brewers fans felt around this time last year when their top trade candidate landed with their division rival. Now, the Cardinals will scramble to find a trade partner for Fedde in the next week, but more than likely, he will be released with St. Louis on the hook for the remainder of his $7.5 million contract.