6 realistic starting pitchers who could be home run signings for the Cardinals

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Cody Ponce

Like Erick Fedde and Miles Mikolas before him, Cody Ponce made the trip over to the NPB and KBO since 2022, and 2025 saw him explore as a starter and become a real option for Major League teams interested in pitching this offseason.

Taking home the 2025 KBO MVP award, Ponce set the KBO ERA record for a foreign starter with a 1.89 ERA in 29 starts. Ponce also set a KBO record with 252 strikeouts, posting an otherworldly 36.2% strikeout percentage along the way.

Obviously, no one is expecting Ponce to replicate those numbers in 2026 if he returns to the Majors, but he does seem like a transformed pitcher. Even though the Fedde experience imploded in 2025 and Mikolas' final years with St. Louis were frustrating, both pitchers had great success in the early stages of their transition back to MLB.

For Ponce, there are multiple parts of his arsenal that seem to be radically different from when we last saw him with the Pirates in 2021. His fastball velocity has jumped from the low-90s to touching the upper 90s. This allowed him to find more success with his breaking balls as well, and he has picked up a splitter that grades out as a plus pitch, which could bode well for him in MLB, considering how much success pitchers from Japan and Korea are finding with them as well.

Fedde signed with the Chicago White Sox two offseasons ago on a two-year, $15 million deal, and Ponce is someone I would be more than comfortable giving a larger deal than that to. While you're likely hoping for back-end of the rotation production, I do think Ponce has the potential to be more than that, and should be able to be acquired for a small price. He has been a popular pick from outside analysts for the Cardinals to sign this offseason.

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