Triple-A Memphis pitcher Richard Fitts will miss the remainder of the 2026 season following surgery earlier this week to address a right lat strain, Cardinals president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said on April 18.
Fitts was acquired by St. Louis in an offseason trade that sent Sonny Gray to Boston. His absence is expected to impact the pitching depth for both Memphis and potentially the major league club, as he was seen as a candidate to contribute during the regular season.
Bloom said Fitts was placed on the Minor League injured list Monday and underwent surgery Wednesday. “Upon further examination with imaging, it was an injury that just required surgery to get to the other side of,” Bloom said. “Unfortunately, it is season ending. Long-term prognosis should be good. We’re confident he’s going to bounce back and be fine, but he’s not going to pitch again this season.”
Before his injury, Fitts posted a 2-0 record with a 1.76 ERA and struck out 11 batters over 15 1/3 innings in three starts for Memphis this year. In his last outing on April 9, he allowed one run over five innings before leaving after throwing 68 pitches.
“Lats can be tricky,” Bloom said about diagnosing such injuries in pitchers. “In my experience, I am not a doctor, but having been around these things [enough to know] where you do sometimes need to give a little time from the moment of injury… It was pretty apparent on the imaging that he got it pretty good.”
Fitts previously went 2-5 with a 3.97 ERA in two seasons with Boston’s Triple-A team and made three appearances for St. Louis during Spring Training.
Cardinals manager Oliver Marmol described Fitts as someone who threw well in spring camp and would have been counted on for innings this year: “It’s something that we were definitely going to count on him to provide some innings and help when the time presented itself this year,” Marmol said. “Really unfortunate, because it’s someone we definitely would have liked to see, and he’s just a really good competitor.”
The Cardinals will now look elsewhere within their system or outside options as they adjust their pitching plans moving forward.
