On Thursday, the San Diego Padres made an underrated move by signing Garrett Richards. The often injured righty will miss most of 2019 while recovering from Tommy-John surgery.
On Thursday, the San Diego Padres dove into the free agent market by making an under the radar signing. The Padres signed often injured starting pitcher, Garrett Richards. Richards’ two-year agreement comes with $15.5 million guaranteed, but incentives can take that number up to $18 million.
The former Angels’ righty is set to miss a chunk of 2019 while recovering from Tommy-John surgery. While he could return to the mound in 2019, this signing signals that the Padres are looking ahead to 2020.
Michael Pineda, Drew Smyly, and Nathan Eovaldi all signed similar deals in past years. In each one of their cases, the starters were looked at as investments to contribute more during the second year of their respective deals. The risk clearly paid off in Eovaldi’s case, as he currently looks to cash in on the free agent market, and we should see Pineda and Smyly return to the mound in 2019.
This deal does come with risk, but it could bring benefits right in line with the Padres’ organizational timeline. The club started to unveil some of their top prospects in 2018, as Luis Urias and Francisco Mejia made their debuts, and we should expect to see more hidden gems at Petco in 2019.
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By making this move, the San Diego Padres have made it clear that they are serious about bolstering their rotation. They have been involved in rumors surrounding
and the aforementioned Eovaldi, and Richards should fit nicely into their 2020 starting rotation.
When healthy, Garrett Richards has shown the league that he is a solid starting pitcher. The righty established himself in 2014, going 13-4 with an ERA of 2.61 and an ERA+ of 138. Richards has made only 28 starts since 2015 but has still shown that he has the ability to be effective. In those appearances, the righty has pitched to an ERA of 3.05 and an ERA+ of 136.
As you can see, Richards is successful when he stays on the mound, maybe this surgery and time off is just what he needs to get his career back on track. He originally suffered a UCL tear in 2016, but chose to undergo stem cell treatment to avoid surgery. Another tear forced Richards to finally have the surgery.
Signing Garrett Richards was a smart risk for the San Diego Padres. The Friars have the money to spend and while they might have to wait until 2020, I believe that this investment will pay dividends. The San Diego Padres should soon be fun to watch as their rebuild looks to be coming to an end.