Here are 4 things you should know about the new Red Sox pitcher, Garrett Richards

January 24, 2021 | 14h51

The Red Sox added another arm to their rotation on Saturday. They reached an agreement with veteran pitcher Garrett Richards on a one-year contract with a second-year option.

Richards, 32, comes to Boston with 10 years of major league experience under his belt. The right-hand started his career at the Los Angeles Angels, playing there from 2011-18. After eight seasons in Los Angeles, Richards stayed in California, signing a two-year contract with the Padres ahead of the 2019 season.

Here are four things you should know about the newest addition to Red Sox.

Richards does much better against right-handed hitter than left-handed hitter.

The thought in baseball is generally that right-handed pitchers have the advantage over hitters who hit on the same side of the board.

This is the case with Richards.

Last season, right-handed hitters had a hitting average of 0.589 on the base plus hits (OPS) against Richards, well below the 0.740 OPS around the main in 2020. Right-handeders also had a batting average of 0.189 against Richards in 2020 .

Left-handed hitters were much better as they had an OPS of 0.853 and a batting average of 0.296 against Richards in 2020.

Richards’ two main pitches are his fastball and slider.

Richards is a difficult pitcher. Its four-stitch fastball had an average speed of 95.1 miles per hour in 2020 and peaks at 99 miles per hour.

Richards relied on his four-seater fastball more than ever in 2020, throwing it at 46.3 percent of his pitches. The batsmen had a decent success against Richards’ fastball last season. They had a hitting average of 0.276 and a 15 percent smell rate against Richards’ fastball in 2020.

Richards was most successful when he used his slider, which he launched on 37.8% of his shots in 2020. The batters had a batting average of 0.147 against Richards’ slider, while hitting and missed 39.5% of them.

In addition to the fastball and slider, Richards also played sinkers and curved balls in 2020.

Richards has an extensive history of injuries.

Injuries have not been kind to Richards over his 10-year career.

The first serious injury that Richards suffered came in 2014, when he was with the Angels. While launching against the Red Sox at Fenway Park, Richards had to be removed from the field after running to first base to complete a double play. The injury ended up being a ruptured patellar tendon, forcing him to miss the rest of the 2014 season.

Richards returned almost eight months later, returning to Angels a few weeks after the start of the 2015 season. As soon as Richards was removed from the disability list in April of that year, he had a clean bill of health for the rest of the season. He had a record of 15-12 with an ERA of 3.65 for that season.

After the 2015 clean season, Richards’ last three seasons with the Angels were defined by injuries. He only made six games in the 2016 and 2017 seasons. In 2016, he was diagnosed with a torn ligament in his right arm, but chose not to have Tommy John’s surgery.

In July 2018, Richards left a game against the Mariners earlier due to an irritation in his right arm. The next day, it was discovered that he had a damaged ulnar collateral ligament in the throwing elbow. Richards had Tommy John’s surgery at that time, which ended his 2018 season and finally his time with the Angels.

Richards has some control issues with his pitches.

While the use of a fastball and slider to beat hitters has brought Richards success throughout his career, these shots certainly had some disadvantages as well.

The veteran pitcher led the American League in wild shots three times in his career. In 2014, a season when Richards lost more than a month of action, Richards launched 22 wild shots, which was really the best in all of baseball.

Richards retained his title in the American League and throughout baseball again in 2015. He launched 17 wild shots that season. He once again led the league in wild shots in 2018. Richards had 15 wild shots that season, in which he missed the last 2.5 months due to Tommy John’s surgery.