Cardinals fans' scapegoat has quietly turned a corner in 2025

Miles Mikolas has taken the brunt of St. Louis Cardinals fans' rage this season for his subpar performance in 2024 and his continued presence on the roster in lieu of young arms.

Going into 2025, Mikolas was considered the weak link in the Cardinals' rotation. He was coming off a season where he struggled to the tune of a 5.35 ERA in 171.2 innings, and there was talk that the Cardinals should have just eaten the rest of his contract and designated him for assignment or released him.

Mikolas is the second-highest-paid starting pitcher for the Cardinals, and the team will owe him $18.5 million before he likely departs in free agency following this season. Although neither Mikolas nor his contract has aged as gracefully as the Cardinals would have liked, fans' calls for the Cardinals to shoot Mikolas into the sun should grow fainter, as Mikolas has so far put together a campaign that, while not fantastic by any means, has been better than many expected.

Mikolas has made real adjustments to stay afloat in today's brand of baseball.

So far this season, Mikolas owns a 4.76 ERA and a 3.65 FIP, and he has surrendered just one home run in 34 innings. Following a nearly unwatchable appearance against the Boston Red Sox on April 6, Mikolas has pitched to a stellar 2.77 ERA over his last five starts. Much of that can be attributed to his new approach of throwing more pitches just outside the strike zone.

Mikolas' 8.1% walk rate is the highest it has been in his seven seasons with the Cardinals. That, when combined with his career-low 12.2% strikeout rate, doesn't seem like it would be a recipe for success. But Mikolas has found some new life with an overhauled slider, which has cutting action when he throws it higher in the zone. Opponents are hitting .234 on the pitch, whereas they had a .301 average against his slider in 2024. Although hitters are laying off of his pitches more often than before because they are in the strike zone less frequently, they also aren't making quality contact as often. It's a razor-thin line to toe in a game where strikeouts are increasingly becoming a necessity for a pitcher to succeed, but Mikolas has been able to stay on that balance beam for a few starts now.

Despite his improved pitching, many fans have not yet put away their pitchforks for the 36-year-old hurler.

Cardinals supporters' desire to cut Mikolas from the team were well founded prior to 2025 and even at the start of the season, but any possibility of the Cardinals carrying out such a move was likely dashed when several of their minor league starters went down with injury early this year, leaving the team with wafer-thin rotation depth. However, while the admittedly now-overpaid pitcher is not going to return to the All-Star form he displayed in 2022, the fears that he might be 2025's version of Adam Wainwright in his final season look to be unfounded to this point, and there should be some respect thrown his way for his ability to adapt to the game's changing tides.