Epstein said Friday that “demand far outweighs supply” in the current market and that everyone has to “recognize the trade deadline is not a panacea” for solving a team’s problems.
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Late Friday night, the Lafayette native was an hour outside of Chicago and moving closer to his return to the major leagues.
Starlin Castro legged out a run-scoring infield single in the 11th inning, and the Chicago Cubs blanked the punchless New York Mets 2-0 Wednesday night for their second consecutive shutout at Citi Field.
The move was precipitated by an upward-mobility clause in Richard’s contract that kicked in Tuesday and opened a 72-hour window in which major-league clubs could inquire about him.
The Cubs have been searching for a consistent No. 5 starter for most of the season after Travis Wood was moved to the bullpen following a bout of inefficiency in the rotation. His 2013 season ended with AC joint surgery, and in the following offseason, he underwent surgery to address thoracic outlet syndrome.
To make room for Richard and Teagarden on the 40-man roster, the Cubs put infielder Tommy La Stella on the 60-day disabled list and designated Gonzalez Germen for assignment.
“Two consecutive years with 200-plus innings in the big leagues?”
My last start [in spring training] was one of the first I didn’t think about mechanics. “That was nice. I got over the hurdle of worrying about what I’m doing on the rubber and gotten to the point where I can just really focus on executing the pitches”.
Richard, 31, was 4-2 with a 2.09 ERA in 56 innings pitched that spanned over nine starts for the Pirates Triple-A affiliate, he also started one game for the Pirates Class-A affiliate giving up four hits while striking out five over six innings pitched.
“I’ve never really felt like I wasn’t ready [for the majors], but I’ve gotten to the point where I think I could have a bad day and still be serviceable”.
According to Fangraphs, nearly 50 percent of contact off Richard is of the ground ball variety.
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In a best case scenario, he will either pitch well enough to garner trade value or continue to solidify himself as a valuable asset in the back-end of this pitching rotation.
