The Cardinals' front office continues to get in its own way

The St. Louis Cardinals have made their first move heading into the trade deadline. With many potential moves aiming to be more difficult to pull off, this move was a very clear and easy decision. Starting pitcher Erick Fedde has been DFA'd and later traded to the Atlanta Braves after a disastrous 2025 season with the Cardinals. In what looks to be yet another blunder by the current front office, Cardinals fans deserve for it to be the last. Hindsight will still say trading 2024 NLCS MVP Tommy Edman for him was the correct decision. Foresight is definitely saying this was another dumpster dive effort to save money, and it completely backfired.

The Cardinals front office continues to trip itself up

What both sides of the fanbase can agree upon is this went on for way too long. John Mozeliak clearly valued recovering trade value over getting replacement production in to salvage the rotation. Mikolas and Fedde became automatic losses with no saving grace ahead for Oliver Marmol and his team. Instead of tapping into the free agency market to find more depth pieces, or simply calling up the prospect hyped as big league-ready in Michael McGreevy, the front office instead threw Fedde into the fire every fifth day to try and showcase any value to a potential buyer. This cost the team wins, cost fan interest into the NL Wild Card race, and cost fan respect with Mozeliak in his final year as the President of Baseball Operations.

Now with the team falling out of the Wild Card race and positioning themselves as sellers before Thursday's deadline, Mozeliak is tasked for getting the best return for the expiring veteran contracts. If recent history has shown itself, this will continue to be a disaster for Cardinals fans. The team should not be heading into this week as sellers if the front office would have been more proactive in addressing their rotation issues. But now they have waited too long and cost the team any chance at being a serious playoff threat in the National League. So if the team continues to fall in the standings and no longer have a chance at making the postseason, do not get irate towards Oliver Marmol or the players on the field. Save your frustrations for the front office, who gets the pardon on every move they make, as they have cost the team the 2025 season and potentially more in the future.