The Braves have acquired right-hander Erick Fedde in a trade with the Cardinals, FanSided’s Robert Murray reports. Some money is also headed to Atlanta in the deal, with ESPN’s Alden Gonzalez reporting the Cards will be covering the approximately $2.7MM remaining on Fedde’s $7.5MM salary for the 2025 season. The deal has been officially announced by the Braves, including the detail that the Cards will receive cash considerations or a player to be named later in return.
The corresponding move to fit Fedde into Atlanta’s roster is also noteworthy, as the Braves announced that right-hander Grant Holmes was shifted to the 60-day injured list. Holmes was placed on the 15-day IL just earlier today due to right elbow inflammation, and the move to the 60-day will effectively end Holmes’ season.
This news adds context to the trade, as while the Braves are well out of contention, Fedde provides Atlanta with a healthy arm in the wake of a multitude of pitching injuries. Chris Sale, Reynaldo Lopez, Spencer Schwellenbach, AJ Smith-Shawver, and now Holmes are all on the IL for the foreseeable future, leaving the Braves with a skeleton crew rotation and plenty of innings to fill over the two remaining months on the schedule.
St. Louis designated Fedde for assignment earlier this week, and the trade allows the Cardinals to get at least some modicum of a return rather than just eating Fedde’s salary anyway if he’d cleared waivers. Still, swapping Fedde for this bare-bones return has to be a disappointment for the Cards given how they could’ve landed a much higher trade package by moving Fedde last winter, or even earlier in the 2025 campaign.
It was almost exactly a year ago that the Cards themselves landed Fedde as part of a three-team trade involving the White Sox (Fedde’s previous club) and the Dodgers. The intent was to add starting help both for the remainder of the 2024 season and into this year, as Fedde is playing on a two-year, $15MM contract signed with Chicago in December 2023. Fedde posted a 3.30 ERA over 177 1/3 combined innings with the Sox and Cards in 2024, and drew plenty of speculation as a trade candidate during the offseason since the Cardinals were ostensibly looking to get younger.
While the Cards at least considered moving Fedde, they ultimately held onto the righty in order to preserve rotation depth. It was one non-move of many in a curiously quiet St. Louis offseason, yet the team’s decision to perhaps give it one more go with most of its veteran core has kept the team on the outskirts of contention. However, the Cards have lost seven of their last 10 games, and with only a 54-53 record, the Fedde DFA was the first clear signal that the team will be looking to sell moreso than buy at the deadline.
Fedde has a 5.22 ERA and a host of dismal advanced metrics over his 101 2/3 innings for St. Louis this season. The righty was at least delivering solid bottom-line results as recently as mid-June, but his production has fallen off a cliff in the form of a 13.25 ERA over his last five starts and 17 2/3 innings. Fedde is allowing far more walks and hard contact than he did in 2024, hence the significant dropoff from his solid performance a year ago.
There hasn’t been much to like about the righty’s performance this year, but the trade allows Fedde a change of scenery and perhaps a chance to salvage something from a lost season. A better showing over the final two months would help Fedde’s case for his next contract on the open market this offseason, and even eating some innings for Atlanta’s rotation could get him on the Braves’ radar for a return visit in 2026, depending on the long-term health of the club’s other starters.