Stable, cool and responsible, pitcher Erik Fedde came to Cardinals as advertised

Erick Fedde was only four outs into his career with the St. Louis Cardinals when trouble really got underway.

A one-out rally for the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field last Friday left Fedde tagged with five earned runs and a loss, and the Cardinals’ preeminent trade deadline acquisition was stuck with a disappointing first start.

Wednesday night at Busch Stadium, it took until the third for trouble to arise. After back-to-back singles put runners on the corners with no one out, Brandon Lowe hit a soft tapper back to the mound, and Rays catcher Alex Jackson inexplicably broke for home.

Fedde, even less understandably, seemed to freeze, and instead of flipping to Willson Contreras for an easy out at the plate, spun and threw to second in an attempt to start a double play that even still would’ve meant conceding a run.

“Just kind of a mistake by me, but one to learn from,” he said after the game.

After a quick mound visit from Contreras, Fedde learned quickly. He escaped the inning with no further damage and didn’t allow a run in his two remaining innings, exiting with a victory which sealed the series for the Cardinals and which felt like an important step in re-gaining traction in the race for a playoff spot.

“I think we all play the game to try to pitch important games and try to pitch in the postseason,” Fedde said. “So the opportunity is amazing and one I’m excited for.”

Acquired in a three-way deal which saw Tommy Edman and a 17-year-old prospect sent to the Los Angeles Dodgers, Fedde’s appeal came in his advertised stability, as well as his affordable price tag which keeps him under control for next season. Without clarity on either Lance Lynn or Steven Matz’s return date to the starting rotation, the Cardinals will need Fedde to immediately shore up a unit which has largely been a strength but which runs the risk of buckling under the strain of a long season.

“This is a guy that, even through traffic, figures out a way to kind of limit damage, and that’s exactly what he did,” manager Oli Marmol said.

Fedde has also turned it better-than-expected swing and miss results through his first two starts with the Cardinals. He has 10 strikeouts in 10 innings pitched for St. Louis, putting him on pace for nearly a full strikeout more per game than he recorded for the Chicago White Sox.

His entire arsenal, save for the sweeping breaking ball which he utilizes largely as a strikeout pitch, hovers in the upper 80s to low 90s on the radar gun. After a year in Korea to revitalize his Korea, that sweeper is the important pitch which keeps hitters honest, and allows him to thrive in and around the strike zone with a mix of cutters and sinkers that are located well enough to generate weak contact and keep hitters off balance.

Still, onboarding can be a delicate process in the middle of the season. After Fedde’s defensive gaffe, Contreras went out for an encouraging visit to clear his head and discuss what the two of them could do to hold the inning where it was.

Christopher Morel worked a bases-loaded walk, but Fedde came back to strike out Josh Lowe and induce former Cardinal Dylan Carlson to fly out to right in a high leverage spot, and Fedde complimented his catcher for making a crucial adjustment.

“Willson made a great adjustment with me on getting his glove a little higher and getting my sweeper to play a little more away than down,” Fedde explained. “I think it started to get more swings earlier in the counts and good swing and miss, and I thought he did a great job with that and getting me to the fifth inning.”

In all, Fedde generated 13 swings and misses among his 93 pitches on Wednesday night. Both Jose Siri in the fourth and Yandy Díaz in the fifth waved at the pitch for swinging strikeouts, and Jackson (fourth) and Morel (fifth) each popped one weakly into foul territory.

Six strikeouts in five innings may not be the precise profile the Cardinals expected out of Fedde upon acquiring him; indeed, they would likely be willing to see the first of those numbers decrease if it meant the second would increase. He also was not maximally efficient, needing 93 pitches to finish those five innings and causing the bullpen to begin stirring as early as the fourth.

It wasn’t a perfect start, but it was better than his first, and it was a demonstration of the progress that comes with comfort and familiarity.

The Cardinals pursued Fedde because, like almost all of their big league starters, he represents a known, stable quantity. That water is approaching its level, and with that, they believe they’ve propped up a potential weakness before it could spread.

With now only two starts for St. Louis under his belt, Fedde’s new manager is just getting to know him up close. Marmol described checking in on the righty after his rough second inning in Chicago, and Fedde responding, “I gotta eat some innings, don’t I Skip?”

That’s stability and responsibility, and it’s come as advertised.

“He had a really good understanding of, ‘yeah, this isn’t really looking like what I want it to and I need to figure out a way to continue to get through it,’” Marmol said. “But when you have that demeanor, there’s some longevity in that.”