Garrett Richards is a free agent possibility for the St. Louis Cardinals

Garrett Richards is a free agent possibility for the St. Louis Cardinals, but should his second half struggles be a concern?

The St. Louis Cardinals rotation, as of right now, is Jack Flaherty, Adam Wainwright, Steven Matz, Miles Mikolas and Dakota Hudson. The group is the strongest (and healthiest) it has been in years, but as last season underscored, you can never have enough pitching depth.

All indications are that Cardinals president of baseball operations John Mozeliak will not make the same mistake. After all, it almost derailed their 2021 season. So despite that rotation, and having internal options such as Jake Woodford, Matthew Liberatore and the possibility of either Alex Reyes or Jordan Hicks getting starts in 2022, the Cardinals plan to survey the market for a sixth starter.

Jon Lester, who was considered a possibility to re-sign, recently retired. J.A. Happ could be an option. But another possibility could be free-agent right-hander Garrett Richards, who Jeff Jones of the Belleville News considers to be the “best free agent fit” for the Cardinals.

Richards, 33, has pitched for 11 seasons, most recently posting a 4.87 ERA in 40 games (22 starts) with the Boston Red Sox. His 3.81 career ERA and 817/351 strikeout-to-walk ratio paint a much better picture, of course, but while he may be forced to sign a cheap ($4-5 million?) one-year deal, he comes with more risk. While he showed flashes of being a solid option, MLB cracking down on foregin substances resulted in a significant dip in production for Richards, forcing the Red Sox to summon him to the bullpen during the season.

It made the Red Sox’s decision to decline his $10.5 million club option obvious and what makes him such a difficult player to pursue in free agency. While he struggled in 2021, he tweeted on Oct. 26: “Thank you for everything Boston. On and off the field, the best I’ve ever had!” Will he be better after half a season and a full offseason working with baseballs without foreign substances? Or was his poor production in the second half of 2021 a sign of things to come?

For me, personally, I would sign J.A. Happ for $2 or so million on a one-year deal rather than sign Richards for $4-5 million on a one-year deal. The one argument that could be made for Richards in this case, however, is that he posted a 47.4 groundball percentage last season while Happ posted a mere 34.8 groundball percentage in St. Louis.

It makes Richards a better fit behind the Cardinals’ infield defense, but his volatility last season with the Red Sox may be too much to ignore.