Trevor Drury For Mac
Richards rose from obscurity to become a capable major leaguer in 2018. An undrafted Division II product whose journey to affiliated baseball included two years in the independent Frontier League, Richards made 25 turns in the Marlins' rotation, posting a respectable 4.42 ERA. Despite a near complete lack of prospect pedigree, his peripherals support his performance and suggest that he should be able to stick in the rotation. He managed to mostly offset a mediocre 35.8% groundball rate and 9.9% walk rate with a 23.8% strikeout rate. His changeup in particular looked quite good, being worth 14.8 runs according to FanGraphs' Pitch Values, a total which ranked second behind only Kyle Hendricks. It would be surprising to see him as anything better than a back-end starter, and his team context limits his ability to pick up wins, but the fact that he looks like a starter at all is quite the achievement given his background. The Marlins' dramatic teardown gives opportunities to players like Richards who might not otherwise receive them.
Trevor Drury For Mac Office
Trevor Drury For Macbook Pro
The 24-year-old's journey to the big leagues is a remarkable one. Undrafted out of Division II Drury University in 2015, Richards pitched for the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League for parts of two seasons before joining the Marlins' organization in July 2016. He shot from short-season to Double-A ball in just two seasons, posting a 2.52 ERA in 200.1 minor-league innings during that span while posting 9.5 K/9 and 2.1 BB/9 rates. Despite his minor-league success and inspiring story, he isn't considered much more than a fringe prospect whose long-term future will likely be in relief. That would be an impressive result for an undrafted player, no doubt, though not enough to make him much of a fantasy asset.