White Sox right-hander Erick Fedde has been linked to loads of groups within the run-up to this summer time’s commerce deadline, together with the Brewers and Astros, however no staff has been extra incessantly linked to the right-hander than the Cardinals. The membership’s “robust curiosity” within the 2023 KBO MVP’s companies was reported final week, and since then a number of experiences have linked Fedde to St. Louis because the Playing cards scour the marketplace for an inexpensive beginning pitching choice to bolster their present rotation of Sonny Grey, Lance Lynn, Kyle Gibson, Miles Mikolas, and Andre Pallante.
The match between St. Louis and Fedde is a reasonably apparent one given the membership’s unsure rotation state of affairs headed into 2025 and Fedde’s further yr of staff management after 2024. Even setting the contractual match apart, the right-hander sports activities a powerful 3.11 ERA and three.76 FIP in 21 begins with Chicago this yr. If Fedde had been within the St. Louis rotation with these numbers, he’d have the bottom ERA by greater than half a run and the second-lowest FIP behind solely Sonny Grey’s sterling 2.85 determine. With the Cardinals only one sport again of a Wild Card spot and 6 video games behind the Brewers within the NL Central, the addition of Fedde wouldn’t solely assist them as they appear to return to the postseason after a final place end of their division final yr however would additionally give the membership a strong front-of-the-rotation arm to start out alongside Grey in a possible Wild Card collection.
Clear because the match between the Cardinals and Fedde could also be, there seem like some hurdles stopping a deal from coming collectively in the meanwhile. With so many potential suitors for his companies, the White Sox seem to have set a hefty asking worth in commerce for the 31-year-old. In line with SoxMachine’s James Fegan, the South Siders have “a minimum of tried” to incorporate younger outfielder Jordan Walker in commerce talks with the Cardinals relating to Fedde. St. Louis’s first-round choose within the 2020 draft, Walker was a consensus top-5 prospect within the sport previous to the 2023 marketing campaign however has struggled considerably on the large league degree to this point.
The teenager hit a strong however unspectacular .276/.342/.445 in his rookie season final yr and was optioned again to the minor leagues again in April after an abysmal .155/.239/.259 exhibiting in his first 20 video games this season. Since returning to Triple-A, Walker has continued to battle as he’s hit simply .237/.305/.372 in 295 journeys to the plate on the degree this yr. Regardless of these deep struggles, nonetheless, Walker remains to be only one season faraway from being an above-average hitter within the large leagues, received’t be a free agent till after the 2029 season, and remains to be very younger at simply 22 years previous. That’s an extremely steep worth to pay for one-plus years of a beginning pitcher, even one as proficient as Fedde.
Given there’s no indication that the Cardinals have been in any respect receptive to together with Walker in a Fedde deal, it appears as if the perimeters could also be going through a niche in commerce talks. Even when that’s the case, although, that doesn’t essentially imply a deal sending Fedde to St. Louis couldn’t finally come collectively. As famous by Ari Alexander of KPRC-2, the White Sox and Cardinals have “mentioned” the potential framework of a three-team commerce that might additionally contain the Dodgers. Los Angeles is understood to have curiosity in Cardinals switch-hitting utilityman Tommy Edman, and The Athletic’s Katie Woo reported earlier at present that St. Louis is hoping to amass cost-controlled beginning pitching in return for Edman.
That might make a hypothetical three-team commerce wherein the Cardinals purchase Fedde from the White Sox whereas giving up Edman to the Dodgers seemingly cheap framework, though it’s unclear whether or not the Cardinals must half with extra items than simply Edman to make the deal work, neither is it clear which items the Dodgers would ship to Chicago to finish their finish of the cut price. Speculatively talking, if the White Sox had been eager about buying Walker because the centerpiece of a deal for Fedde, the Dodgers might dangle a younger hitter of their very own akin to James Outman or Miguel Vargas as a centerpiece for his or her a part of the commerce.
Alexander experiences that no deal between the perimeters is in place as issues stand, however the discussions appear to verify a willingness to get artistic on the a part of all sides because the Cardinals proceed their pursuit of pitching upgrades whereas the Dodgers look to elongate a lineup that has misplaced key items like Mookie Betts, Max Muncy, and Miguel Rojas to damage, leaving them with properly under common manufacturing within the again half of their lineup.
