The Cardinals announced that left-hander Caleb Ferguson has been designated for assignment. Fellow southpaw Brycen Mautz was called up from Triple-A Memphis to take Ferguson’s spot on the 26-man roster, and St. Louis now has a vacancy on its 40-man roster since Mautz is already on the 40-man.
Ferguson has pitched on three of the last four days, and yesterday’s one-third of an inning of scoreless ball was just the fourth time Ferguson hadn’t been charged with at least one earned run over his nine games in a St. Louis uniform. The Cardinals acquired Ferguson from the Reds at the trade deadline but the veteran has struggled badly since the move, posting an 8.64 ERA over 8 1/3 innings with almost as many walks (eight) as strikeouts (nine).
With Ferguson simply not performing, the Cards have chosen to utilize his roster spot on a fresher arm in Mautz. Since trades are no longer permitted past the deadline, Ferguson can only change teams via the DFA process if he is claimed off the waiver wire. Claiming Ferguson would put a new club on the hook for the roughly $750K remaining of Ferguson’s $4.5MM salary for the 2026 season.
It’s not a huge sum for a team in need of bullpen help, but Ferguson’s lack of recent results may give any interested clubs pause, especially if they think they can just sign Ferguson to a minor league contract as a free agent. Should Ferguson indeed clear waivers, he has more than enough MLB service time to decline a minor league assignment and opt for free agency, so the 30-year-old could soon be back on the open market. If this scenario plays out, the Cardinals would be responsible for most of the remaining $750K, minus the prorated portion of a Major League minimum salary (that would be covered by Ferguson’s new team).
While the big spike in walk rate is a red flag, interested teams could view Ferguson’s struggles in St. Louis as a by-product of a .409 BABIP as a Cardinal, or just a small-sample size blip altogether. Before the trade, Ferguson had a more respectable 4.01 ERA, 20.2K%, and 10.2BB% in 24 2/3 innings with Cincinnati.
