Ranking the 10 worst and most inexplicable Cardinals sagas under John Mozeliak

3. Handling of Erick Fedde following the 2024 season

No, the Erick Fedde saga has not been the worst and most inexplicable saga of John Mozeliak's regime in my books, but the fact that it has gotten as insane as it has and happened in this year of all years is truly a testament to how far things have fallen under Mozeliak's leadership in recent years.

Remember when Bill DeWitt Jr. fired Mike Matheny and said, “In some places a winning record, or even .500, is even acceptable. Not with this city, not with this franchise, not with its history, and not with the fans,"? Yeah, I do too. Well, Mozeliak has kept his job through some pretty awful years as of late, and he outright sabotaged the Cardinals' 2025 season with how he handled Erick Fedde this year.

No, trading for Fedde was not a mistake, but not trading him in the offseason was. I've been over that so many times, so I won't rehash that again. But then, as the year went on, two things became clear. First, the Cardinals were looking like a surprise team and performing much better than people expected. And second, Erick Fedde was unraveling and things were going to blow up if they did not take swift action.

I get it, Fedde had a fine ERA going into his start against the Chicago Cubs at the end of June, but literally every number under the hood had been screaming all season that Fedde was getting lucky and that he was pitching terribly. He was walking the world, striking out next to no one, and when players hit the ball, they hit it hard and it went far. Uh, that's bad in every sense of the word.

Oh, but the Cardinals kept running him out there, and as Fedde got shelled time and time again, Mozeliak made it even more difficult to get the Cardinals' season back on track. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say that the Cardinals are likely looking at adding to this team at the deadline if they had replaced Fedde with McGreevy in the offseason or earlier in the season.

The Cardinals went 5-15 in Fedde's starts this year, a horrific .250 win%. In non-Fedde starts, the club is 47-36, and that includes all of Miles Mikolas' starts. We are talking about a team that is competing for the second Wild Card spot right now with the New York Mets on that kind of win pace. That's how bad Fedde has been for them this year.

You can't convince me that if McGreevy was in the rotation this whole time they wouldn't be a much better team. It's insane because not only did the Cardinals block McGreevy's runway with Fedde's presence, but they actually made the team worse as well.

What a poetic ending to Mozeliak's tenure, single-handedly sabotaging his chance at a surprise contending season as a send-off by trying to recoup Fedde's trade value over.