9 Cardinals who have been on fire the first month of the 2024 season, 9 who are cold

Ice-cold: Miles Mikolas

Miles Mikolas, the Cardinals' Opening Day starter the last two seasons, his pitched like a number five starter since last April, and that continues to cost them games in a big way.

Mikolas doesn't need to be a front-end starter for the Cardinals to succeed this year, but he does need to be better than the 5.91 ERA he's posted in his first six starts. Mikolas has had his fair share of solid starts in the early going, but he's also had outings where the Cardinals effectively have lost the game before the fifth inning.

Mikolas will be able to provide value for the team if he's able to eat innings and have a serviceable ERA as the season goes on. Giving up just shy of six runs per nine innings just isn't good enough, but if he gets that close to the 4.50-5.00 range, he will manage as the Cardinals' fifth starter.

The Cardinals may be forced to make a tough decision regarding Mikolas as the season goes on if he can't turn things around. Mikolas is due $16 million for this season and 2025, so it's not likely that they'll be able to move off of him any time soon. And at this point in his career, his value comes from bulk innings, so converting him to a reliever won't help their cause either.

The club has made their bed in regards to Mikolas and will have to wait things out for a while to see how they play out. As I said earlier, he has had a few solid outings so far, so if he can string a few more together, things will look better from a counting stats standpoint.