FORT MYERS, Fla. – Richard Fitts felt lucky to make his major league debut last year, but that doesn’t mean he wants to be known as a lucky pitcher.

Allow him to explain.

“I had some success, but there’s stats out there that say I was one of the luckiest guys pitching, and I don’t want that to be my niche,” he told the Herald. “I want to go out there and prove to everybody that I deserve to be there and it’s not luck.”

Fitts made four starts for the Red Sox last September, facing the Chicago White Sox, New York Yankees (who drafted him), Minnesota Twins, and Toronto Blue Jays. He became the second pitcher in MLB history to go at least five innings without allowing an earned run in each of the first three starts of his career. He came close to writing his own page in the record books, too; on Sept. 25, he was two innings away from becoming the first pitcher to begin his career with as many as four such starts when the Blue Jays laid waste to that endeavor.

Looking to build on his September success, Fitts spent the offseason loading up his arsenal.

“A couple years ago I was a two-pitch guy, and last year I was more of a three-pitch guy, and now it feels like I have six weapons that I can use,” he said. “Four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, changeup, gyro slider, sweeper, and curveball.”

“I think the experience that I got up in the big leagues at the end of the year was great for me, just to move into the offseason kind of knowing what I needed to do,” he said. “And throughout the year in (Triple-A) Worcester I was sitting there talking, like, ‘maybe I can miss more barrels if I’m throwing a curveball.’ And so the offseason hit and they were like, ‘Hey, let’s think about throwing a curveball.’”

The curveball is the pitch he’s most excited to deploy this year. It’s a blast from his past, thrown in high school and college, then stashed away for years. It was on his mind last season, but he held off on testing it out.

“I wanted to throw it last year,” he said. “It sucked in college, sucked in high school. Then I started throwing it this offseason, and I was like, ‘Wow this looks really good.’ It’s no Clayton Kershaw curveball, nothing like that yet but I’m trying to do my best with it, and when I throw a really good one, it hypes me up and makes me want to throw it over and over.”

“If you’re comparing my curveball to Clayton Kershaw’s curveball in a couple years, I’ll be OK with that,” he said.

Pitching coach Andrew Bailey wanted to find ways for Fitts to generate more swing-and-miss this year. He also knew that diversifying the pitch portfolio could amplify the rookie’s best pitches.

“He’s a big kid that can throw hard,” Bailey told the Herald. “He’s a guy that competes with the zone. Being able to get in some more advantageous counts in different ways was kind of the impetus for the curveball and the two-seam that he’s throwing, and to be able to use his larger weapons and not be so reliant on those so consistently.”

Fitts’ two-seamer had been out of commission since the Yankees selected him in the ‘21 draft.

“I’m really thankful for my time with the Yankees,” Fitts said. “I was throwing a two-seam and a four-seam in college, and I was on the phone with them after the draft, they said ‘Hey never throw a two-seam again.’”

Longtime friend Garrett Whitlock had a very similar experience in the Yankees organization. They told him to axe his one-seam, a decision he said didn’t turn out well. With Bailey’s encouragement, Whitlock began adding the one-seamer back into his mix last winter.

“I think philosophically, every team was on four-seams for a long time, and over time we’ve started to see two-seams

Though the two have worked out together since Fitts’ college days, he says there’s a specific limit to how much pitching-related discussion they can have.

“I love talking to Whit and I love him to death but I can’t talk to him about pitch grips or anything like that because we throw completely different,” Fitts said. “If I try and throw his changeup I’m not going to have a very good changeup. He’s got the best extension in the league, he throws it way out here and I’m back here, not even close. He’s a freak! He’s able to do everything that he does really well.”

Fitts is eager to prove himself in big-league camp this spring, in part because he’s one of several pitchers without a defined role. He also wants to impress his pitching coach.

“I talked to Bails after my outing yesterday. I said, ‘I really want to have a good outing in front of you because I feel like I haven’t had my best stuff in any of my outings in the big leagues yet,’” he said. “And that’s what’s really encouraging to me, I feel like I’m not doing as well as I could do but I’m still having success, too. Just from a stuff aspect, I know I can do better, and I have done better in the past, and I think I’m really close to doing that.”

Bailey, in his second year on the job, has made an enormous impact on Fitts and his teammates. In addition to the expertise he brings from his own pitching career, he has the rare ability to be honest while still making players feel comfortable and supported.

“I can go to him and tell him that I want to throw a knuckleball,” Fitts said, “and he would probably look at me like I’m crazy and be like, ‘Here’s why we probably shouldn’t do that, but if you really think you should, then maybe we’ll think about it.’ He’s just very easy to talk to, he’s great to talk to, and knows what he’s talking about.”

Doubling one’s pitch mix can be “a little overwhelming,” Fitts admitted. “But it’s fun, because it’s a game and we’re all trying to figure out how to do it better.”

He’s also excited for the havoc he can wreak on opposing lineups, who will have to contend with six different pitches.

“One of the biggest things is literally just having the option,” he said. “I’m not nearly on the level of feeling like my curveball is my (best) pitch by any means, but if I can flip it in there and now a hitter has to be like, ‘Whoa, he has a curveball?’ And then it makes my main pitches really good.”