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It probably doesn’t feel like it, but Miles Mikolas has been getting the job done for the St. Louis Cardinals this season.
The Cardinals’ record in his games hasn’t been glowing, as the club lost his first five starts. But Mikolas finally added a win to the ledger in a 6-0 victory over the Reds on Wednesday afternoon.
Even before he picked up that win with 5.1 innings of scoreless baseball in Cincinnati, Mikolas largely hasn’t been the reason for the losses piling up on his days to pitch. There was one obvious exception to that claim, as Mikolas infamously surrendered nine runs, eight earned to the Red Sox on Sunday Night Baseball in the season’s second week.
On that night, there’s no disputing it—Mikolas singlehandedly cost the Cardinals a baseball game. But outside of his brutal night in Boston, would you believe it if I told you that Miles Mikolas holds a 2.39 ERA across the other five starts of his season?
It might be hard to believe, but that’s the actual stat.
So perhaps the favorite whipping boy of Cardinals fans who pine for Michael McGreevy to get an opportunity at the big-league level hasn’t totally deserved the amount of scorn he’s received so far in 2025.
Now, let’s make something clear, because context is king. While it’s totally reasonable to wish to see McGreevy getting MLB starts in what is supposed to be a year geared around transitioning the organization into its next era, that doesn’t inherently mean that Miles Mikolas should be the butt of the joke anymore—or that he isn’t performing capably for the Cardinals right now.
Five out of six times this season, Mikolas has given the team a chance to win. It’s not a high bar, and he's still a guy that Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol is careful to protect against the third time through the opposing batter order. For the salary he’s earning, it’s reasonable to be disappointed that the bar has sunk to that level for the former All-Star.
But it’s also true that the Cardinals don’t have the luxury to scoff at the sturdy performance Mikolas has provided over the past several weeks. Not with so many from the club’s reserve of pitching prospects—those like Quinn Mathews, Tink Hence or Cooper Hjerpe who were destined to provide a boost to the MLB pitching staff as 2025 progressed—on the injured list.
Considering the depletion of the depth down below, you’d be crazy not to take what Mikolas is giving you lately.
Another piece of context: What I’m saying here isn’t a defense of the original contract extension.
When John Mozeliak signed Mikolas to an extension for 2024-2025 in the spring of 2023, the right-hander still had a year remaining on his pre-existing deal. It’s true, the club could have forced Mikolas to play out that 2023 season before tacking on any additional guaranteed years or salary beyond it. And from a business standpoint, they should have done exactly that.
Mikolas ended up pitching to a 4.78 ERA that year and if judged in free agency on the strengths of those efforts—whether by the Cardinals or other clubs—would not have commanded the same salaries afforded to him for those years by the deal that he had already signed.
Plus, the extension boosted Mikolas’ 2023 salary and locked the Cardinals into him for two more years at a rate that likely would have been near the ceiling of what it would have cost the Cardinals to extend him even if they waited it out and he did ultimately pitch a strong 2023 campaign in a contract year.
We can understand why Mozeliak did it—the Cardinals are comfortable with their own, and Mo already knew the task before him to replace what ended up being 60% of the St. Louis pitching rotation in one off-season. He wanted to get somebody on the books.
Whatever his motivations, it’s inarguable: Mozeliak’s crime of convenience hasn’t panned out favorably, even with this recent rebound for the veteran hurler.
But that doesn’t mean that Miles Mikolas can’t continue to be a force for good for the Cardinals, as he certainly was on Wednesday afternoon.