Los Angeles Angels Encouraged by Garrett Richards’ Strong Spring Debut
By Keaton Moore
With a strong spring debut, Los Angeles Angels ace Garrett Richards appears to be fully recovered from an elbow injury he suffered last season.
Weakened by the departure of Jered Weaver, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim are counting on the recovering Garrett Richards to round out their rotation in 2017. After his injury-shorted 2016 season, Richards showed signs of recovery in his encouraging spring debut on Sunday afternoon.
“I got excited on a couple of pitches, but overall everything was kind of doing what I wanted it to,” Richards said (per ocregister.com). “It’s a good one to build off of.”
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Without any sign of the changeup he tampered with last season, Richards relied more on his curveball against the Cincinnati Reds. He ended the first inning with back-to-back strikeouts after hitting Zack Cozart.
Although he gave up four hits and three runs in the second inning, several of his fastballs touched 97 mph.
“He’s going the way he would in a regular-season game.” Angels manager Mike Scioscia said (per ocregister.com). “Maybe in his mind he’s 85 percent, but I think that’s just one way for him to talk about keeping his delivery where it needs to be so he’s not out there rushing, getting all out of sync.”
His season came to an end early last May due to a partial tear in his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL). Instead of resorting to Tommy John surgery and its 12-18 month recovery, Richards decided to take another route.
By injecting platelet-rich plasma from the bone marrow in his pelvis, Richards’ elbow healed at a miraculous rate. It worked so well that he pitched in a few instructional league games last fall.
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With his first spring start under his belt, Richards is expected to be the Angels’ fourth starter in 2017. Behind Matt Shoemaker, Ricky Nolasco and Tyler Skaggs, Richards hopes to regain his 2015 form, where he went 15-12 with a 2.65 ERA.
“There’s not really much more I can do, I feel like,” Richards said (per ocregister.com). “As long as everything feels good and the ball is coming out of my hand nice, then I’m not worried about it.”