Cardinals Fears Confirmed as Richard Fitts Undergoes Season-Ending Surgery
The St. Louis Cardinals worst fears regarding the health of Richard Fitts were realized earlier in the week when the right-handed pitcher underwent season-ending surgery to repair a lat injury on his right side, president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said.
The St. Louis Cardinals worst fears regarding the health of Richard Fitts were realized earlier in the week when the right-handed pitcher underwent season-ending surgery to repair a lat injury on his right side, president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom said. Fitts, 26, was acquired on Nov.
27 from the Red Sox in a trade that centered around veteran pitcher Sonny Gray heading to Boston. Fitts, who nearly made the Opening Day roster out of Spring Training, was off to a hot start with Triple-A Memphis prior to suffering the injury in his third start. “Bummed for him,” Bloom said of Fitts via text message from Houston where the Cardinals were beginning a three-game series against the Astros.
“It’s a good prognosis long term, but he will not pitch (again) this year. ” Richard Fitts drops the beautiful 83 mph sweeper to get Enrique Bradfield swinging to open the game with a strikeout for Memphis pic. twitter.
com/FrtLzhJ2Ll — Kyle Reis, 58% Neanderthal (@kyler416) April 2, 2026 Naughton, Cards still weighing surgical options The team has yet to determine a course of action for left-handed reliever Packy Naughton, who suffered ligament damage in his left elbow in a game for Memphis on Wednesday night. Naughton, who made it to the big leagues with the Cardinals in 2022, suffered major elbow injuries in 2023 and again in 2024. He missed all of the 2025 season and was pushing for another MLB promotion when disaster struck again.