5 Cardinals players most likely to be traded at this year's Winter Meetings

Erick Fedde

For as much as Matz's trade value appears to be helped by the state of free agent pitching right now, Erick Fedde's value should be so much better considering the season he is coming off of and the absolute bargain of a contract he is on.

In his first season back from the KBO, Fedde posted a 3.30 ERA in 31 starts for the White Sox and Cardinals in 2024. Fedde transformed his arsenal in his year in Korea and has come back a completely different pitcher. Fedde pitched like a borderline number two starter at times this year and should be seen as a really solid number three or overqualified number four starter by other teams right now.

Starters like that, especially ones just hitting their early 30s, tend to get $15m-$20m in free agency over multiple years (see Kikuchi above). In the case of Fedde, the right-hander is making just $7.5 million in 2025, an absolute bargain rate.

Sure, the Cardinals could hold onto him for that very reason. They've been open about not wanting to tank in 2025 and see this reset year as an opportunity to remain competitive while handing over opportunities to young talent and reducing payroll. Fedde would certainly help them remain competitive and be an awesome value for their books, but is that the best use of his value for them next season?

If they truly had expectations to be a playoff team next year, then Fedde would make a ton of sense to keep around. But in reality, the more important thing for this club right now is building toward the future. They could bring back Fedde on an extension, but he feels like more of what they already have, and they are about to have young starters enter their rotation on league minimum salaries.

Fedde makes much more sense as a trade piece in my book. Like Matz before, all kinds of teams would be interested in adding him, except his production, health, and even less expensive salary, which make him way more attractive to potential suitors.

Holding onto Fedde and dealing him later would be risky business from St. Louis. Although he looked great in 2024, it could be an outlier season, or he could get hurt early in 2025 and lose all value. If the Cardinals are worried about having enough innings for next season, then hold onto Matz or Miles Mikolas instead. But I really see no good reason to hold onto Fedde at this point, especially with the kind of value they could get in return.

It would not be some kind of crazy return, but Fedde should easily net the Cardinals a couple of prospects from an organization's top 15, with one of those being even a top seven guy depending on the strength of their system. That means more to this organization right now then the cheap, quality innings he could provide for them next season.

While I expect some of these other names to be moved on this list, Fedde is one who has not be talked about much outside of speculation, and if the Cardinals end up not shopping him around, I think that would be a massive mistake.