Cardinals’ minor league pitcher Fitts has season-ending surgery to repair a right lat injury

HOUSTON (AP) — St. Louis minor league pitcher Richard Fitts had season-ending surgery this week to repair an injury to his right lat that landed him on the injured list earlier this week.

“Long term prognosis should be good,” Cardinals’ president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said Friday. “We’re confident he’s going to bounce back and be just fine but, he’s not going to pitch again this season.”

Fitts was 2-0 with a 1.76 ERA in three starts for Triple-A Memphis this season. He is in his first season with the Cardinals after joining the team this offseason from the Red Sox as part of the Sonny Gray trade.

Manager Oliver Marmol said they were impressed with Fitts during spring training and were hoping he could help the team at some point this season.

“He did really well, and it’s someone that we definitely were going to count on providing some innings and helping when the time presented itself this year,” he said. “Really unfortunate because it’s someone that we definitely would have liked to see and just a really good competitor.”

The right-hander is 2-5 with a 3.97 ERA in 15 games with 14 starts over two seasons with the Red Sox.

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