4 Cardinals players who are dragging the team down this year

Ryan Fernandez

As mentioned in the intro of the article, the Cardinals' bullpen needs to have some blame passed to them for the team's late-inning downfall. Through 25 games, the entire reliever corps has combined for a 2-8 record and a 4.94 ERA. If you take out the only three quality relievers of Maton, Helsley, and Leahy, that changes to a 2-7 record with an incredibly bad 6.67 ERA. A main component of those struggles is Ryan Fernandez, who is 0-2 with an 11.42 ERA so far in 2025.

Last season, Fernandez was selected in the Rule 5 draft and was a solid weapon for Marmol's bullpen, with a 3.51 ERA and 71 strikeouts in 66.2 innings. This performance and decent peripherals made me a believer in his long-term fit with the club, so much so that I thought he could be Andrew Kittredge's replacement for a late-inning role. This seemed to be the plan for the Cardinals as well, but he struggled a bit in Spring Training, but that was dismissed as one of the usual "spring stats don't matter" discussion. In his 8.2 exhibition innings, Fernandez was able to maintain decent strikeout levels but ran into command issues that took the trip north along with him.

After starting the season with a scoreless first appearance, Fernandez allowed at least one run in his next four outings, including three runs in two of those games. Those struggles looked to be past the reliever when he bounced back with three straight scoreless appearances, and he did not walk a batter. However, that positivity was short-lived, as he gave up five earned runs over his next 1.2 innings, as the bullpen options that Marmol had to choose from were either overused or not viable for the situation. The worst of these outings was in New York, when Fernandez was called upon to keep the Cardinals in a one-run game but he was hit hard for three runs on three hits and a walk in one inning of work.

Fernandez was given one more chance to preserve a tied game in Atlanta, but a hanging slider to Eli White was demolished for a three-run, back-breaking home run to seal another road series loss for the Cardinals. After his slider was a top-performing pitch in the majors, his breaking ball has taken a terrifying step back, being rated as one of the worst pitches in all of baseball. Against his slider in 2025, opposing batters are hitting .500 with two doubles, two triples, and a homer, resulting in a .950 slugging percentage. In comparison, that same pitch last year had a .192 batting average and .295 slugging percentage against it.

While a move to Triple-A will probably do Fernandez well as he looks to regain his slider and his confidence, his replacement does not provide much excitement other than a new name taking the mound in games. As Marmol said, the front office did not supply the Cardinals with depth at any level of the organization that could be used to actually make a difference for the team. Riley O'Brien was recalled after Fernandez's demotion after a strong start to the year, so he will likely be eased into lower-pressure situations to see if he can bring his decent stuff to St. Louis.