By Rob Rains
With the clock ticking, the Cardinals completed their first trade before Tuesday’s deadline on Monday, sending Tommy Edman to the Dodgers and bringing in Erick Fedde and Tommy Pham from the White Sox in a three-team deal.
In trading Edman, who had not played for the Cardinals this season after undergoing surgery on his right wrist last October, the Cardinals dealt from the depth in their outfield to acquire what they believed were two missing pieces in their lineup – a bat to play against lefthanded pitchers, and another starter for the rotation.
The emergence of Michael Siani and Alec Burleson this season made Edman more available in a trade, even though he has only been able to DH during a rehab assignment at Double A Springfield. He had been scheduled to play in the outfield for the first time there on Tuesday night.
Edman spoke to the media in the Cardinals’ clubhouse shortly after the trade became official.
“I’ve seen wild things happen over the trade deadline the past couple of years,” said Edman. “It kind of comes out of nowhere, to be honest. The last couple days, I started to hear my name start to get mentioned. I honestly, leading up to this, had no idea this was going to happen.
“It kind of came together pretty quickly. It’s definitely a weird time.”
Edman said he has been pleased with how his wrist has felt during his rehab assignment, and that he also believes he is over an ankle injury that delayed his return to the outfield.
He said he is scheduled to get a medical evaluation with the Dodgers and then find out what their plan will be for him.
The Cardinals, of course, are quite familiar with Pham, who was on the team from 2014 to 2018. Since then, he has played for seven teams, signing this year with the White Sox as a free agent.
With Chicago, the 36-year-old Pham has posted an .848 OPS against lefthander pitchers, an area where the Cardinals have struggled. Interestingly, Pham had expressed a desire in signing with the Cardinals during spring training but that interest was not mutual.
At that time, the Cardinals expected Edman to be their starting center fielder and Jordan Walker their right fielder, before Edman’s recovery took longer than expected and Walker was sent back to Triple A after a slow start to his season.
Pham is expected in St. Louis on Tuesday while Fedde will join the Cardinals when they arrive in Chicago on Thursday to begin a four-game series against the Cubs. That would be his next scheduled day to pitch.
Fedde signed a two-year contract over the winter with the White Sox after a breakout season in South Korea in 2023. The Cardinals did background work and evaluation of Fedde at that time, but did not have a spot for him having already signed free agents Sonny Gray, Lance Lynn and Kyle Gibson to join holdover starters Miles Mikolas and Steven Matz. Andre Pallante has since replaced the injured Matz in the rotation.
In 21 starts for the last-place White Sox, Fedde was 7-4 with a 3.11 ERA. He struck out 108 batters in 121 innings. Fedde earlier pitched for the Washington Nationals.
The Cardinals did not immediately say how Fedde, 31, will slot into their rotation.
To open a spot for the two new players on the 40-man roster, Memphis catcher Nick Raposo was designated for assignment. Another spot had been created on Sunday when Giovanny Gallegos also was DFA’d.
In addition to Edman, the Cardinals traded 17-year-ols minor-league pitcher Oliver Gonzalez from their Dominican Summer League team to the Dodgers.
The Cardinals are believed to still be in discussions about additional trades, targeting another arm for the bullpen as their primary goal. The trade deadline is at 5 p.m. St. Louis time on Tuesday.
Follow Rob Rains on Twitter @RobRains
Photo by AP courtesy of KSDK Sports
