5 Cardinals who are most responsible for the club's demise in 2025

Miles Mikolas

Entering the 2025 season, Miles Mikolas was a "hold your nose and hope he gives you five innings" pitcher. The right-hander was on the final year of an ill-fated contract extension that the Cardinals gave him in 2023 following an All-Star campaign the prior season. In 2023, Mikolas placed third in the National League in innings pitched, with 201.1, but the frames were often ugly, and he stumbled to a 4.78 ERA. That was a harbinger of things to come in 2024, as Mikolas was among the worst starters in the league, owning a 5.35 ERA and an ERA+ of 77.

Mikolas worked on a new approach for 2025. Instead of peppering the zone and rarely walking batters like in previous years (he ranked in the 98th percentile in walk rate in 2024), he attempted to avoid the zone more often. However, it didn't appear to have the desired results, as in addition to walking more batters (2.1 per nine innings, compared with 1.3 in 2024), he elicited a 25% chase rate, when it was 27.9% in 2024.

Despite those numbers, Mikolas had a better year overall in 2025 than he did in 2024, and that was mostly due to his performance at Busch Stadium. He owned a 3.42 ERA and a .234 opposing batting average in 15 starts at home, but he struggled to a 6.33 ERA and a .315 opposing average when away from St. Louis. At his lowest point, he surrendered six home runs in the first three innings against the Chicago Cubs.

Because the contract plays, Mikolas was entrenched in the rotation at the expense of 2021 first-round pick Michael McGreevy, who came up for a few spot starts but didn't become a full-fledged rotation piece until Erick Fedde was dealt at the trade deadline. On the local sports radio station 101 ESPN, Mikolas was asked about whether he felt bad about blocking the spot of a younger player, to which he said no, he did not.

Mikolas' directness has earned him both respect and criticism from Cardinals fans, and a few of his comments have made the rounds in local news circles, including one where he may have taken an indirect shot at Cardinals legend Adam Wainwright.

The Cardinals likely didn't expect too much from Mikolas in 2025, but his guaranteed spot in the Cardinals' rotation impeded the progress of a younger starter and led to consistent losses on the road. When combined with his occasionally brash comments, it created a mixture that Cardinals fans will be glad not to have to swallow in 2026, assuming the Cardinals don't re-sign him.