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Red Sox starting pitching candidates for potential six-man rotation

By Joseph Scurto

FT. MYERS, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Chris Sale #41 of the Boston Red Sox high fives Nathan Eovaldi #17 and Darwinzon Hernandez #63 during a team workout on February 20, 2020 at jetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images)
FT. MYERS, FL - FEBRUARY 20: Chris Sale #41 of the Boston Red Sox high fives Nathan Eovaldi #17 and Darwinzon Hernandez #63 during a team workout on February 20, 2020 at jetBlue Park at Fenway South in Fort Myers, Florida. (Photo by Billie Weiss/Boston Red Sox/Getty Images) /
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SAN DIEGO, CA – SEPTEMBER 13: Garrett Richards #43 of the San Diego Padres pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park on September 13, 2020 in San Diego, California. Today’s game was to make up for Friday’s postponed game. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CA – SEPTEMBER 13: Garrett Richards #43 of the San Diego Padres pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Francisco Giants at Petco Park on September 13, 2020 in San Diego, California. Today’s game was to make up for Friday’s postponed game. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images) /

Red Sox starter Garrett Richards

Right-handed pitcher Garrett Richards is the newest toy for Alex Cora and will likely be the third man up. It is concerning that we are just on the third pitcher and will have to continue to talk about their injury history. Richards suffered a gruesome knee injury, ironically at Fenway Park, in 2014 when was having a career year. He owned a record of 13-4 with a 2.61 ERA in 26 starts and supported a dominant 8.8 K/9.

He did recover in 2015 and managed to start 32 games and hit double-digit wins once again with 15. He carried an ERA that inflated a bit at 3.65 in 207.1 innings pitched with a 7.7 K/9. After that Richards would go through a tough battle with elbow injuries which led to surgery. Since 2016, he has only pitched about 200 total innings which makes you question the move.

Despite the small number of innings pitched and the injuries, Richards did have a small bounce-back year with the San Diego Padres where he managed to stay relativity healthy through 14 starts and supported a 2-2 record and an ERA of 4.03.

Richards is under contract for just one year that worth $10 million with Boston. He can be a key piece carrying a high strikeout rate throughout his career. An extra day of rest can benefit a guy like Richards to remain fresh as he could be a steal for Chaim Bloom and company as long as he manages to stay on the field.

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