As the MLB trade deadline approaches, all eyes are on the St. Louis Cardinals. Few teams feel more combustible right now. John Mozeliak will probably give us one last anticlimax if we're taking bets, but the potential for significant change is there. Especially if Chaim Bloom gets equal say in team decisions, as Mozeliak keeps suggesting.
The Cardinals are four games above .500 and very much in the NL Wild Card race, but this is an aging roster with a clear ceiling and a very low floor. The farm system needs substantial improvement. Bloom is known for building pipelines and putting his teams in position for long-term success. Craig Breslow inherited quite the prospect pool from Bloom in Boston. The Cardinals are hoping that Bloom can breed more sustainability after Mozeliak's last few years of expensive non-contention.
Few players on the Cardinals roster make for more obvious trade deadline casualties than Erick Fedde, whose expiring $7.5 million contract shouldn't be too difficult to move — even as his production falters. Fedde currently sits with a 4.83 ERA and 1.47 WHIP through 19 starts, which is bad. No two ways about it. But he was good last season and there's no long-term commitment, so there's a contender out there with the financial flexibility to swing a deal.
St. Louis already has its replacement lined up, from the look of it.
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Cardinals sign Aaron Wilkerson as potential Erick Fedde replacement
Aaron Wilkerson has agreed to a minor league contract with the Cardinals after opting out of a similar deal with the Cincinnati Reds.
We have signed RHP Aaron Wilkerson to a minor league contract and assigned him to Memphis (AAA).
— Cardinals Player Development (@CardsPlayerDev) July 19, 2025
LHP Yadiel Batista & RHP Hunter Kublick have been transferred from the FCL to Palm Beach (A).
He will begin his tenure with Triple-A Memphis, but a call-up feels inevitable — especially if the Cards can offload Fedde. Wilkerson hasn't pitched in an MLB game since 2019, but he spent a few intervening seasons in Japan and Korea, not unlike former KBO star Fedde. That rebuilt Wilkerson's value and gave him a path to big-league reps.
Through 18 starts with Triple-A Louisville this season, Wilkerson posted a 4.17 ERA and 1.06 WHIP in 95.0 innings pitched. He has 78 strikeouts.
Cardinals' Erick Fedde replacement could run into similar problems
Wilkerson looks better than Fedde from afar right now, but he's not exactly a shutout pitcher in the minors. It's even tougher sledding in the majors, especially for someone who has not experienced that pressure and level of competition since 2019. That's six years ago, folks.
Like Fedde, Wilkerson is a aging pitcher looking to out-finesse his opponents at the plate. He doesn't pack elite swing-and-miss stuff; he won't rack up easy outs with pure velocity. He is going to rely on the Cards defense when the ball is invariably put in play. St. Louis is excellent in the field, but at a certain point, too much hard contact will lead to bleeding runs. Point and case, Erick Fedde.
Wilkerson has a lot to prove. He has followed an arc that is not dissimilar to Fedde's, for better or worse. If nothing else, there's a bit of poetry to him succeeding Fedde as the Cardinals' latest reclamation project. Nothing is set in stone, but at this point, Wilkerson might replace Fedde even if the latter isn't traded. St. Louis needs to change... something.