BOSTON — Garrett Richards has been moved to the bullpen, manager Alex Cora announced Wednesday.

“He’s in the bullpen,” Cora confirmed.

Richards, 33, was signed to a one-year, $10 million dollar deal this offseason in hopes of being a solid third starter.

The right-hander had a tough early going, posting a 6.48 ERA through four starts, but found his groove in his fifth start against the Mets and tossed seven one-run innings. The veteran, from there, had a solid next eight starts, as through 13 starts his ERA was at a clip of 4.09.

But then, the MLB started to crack down on foreign substances. Since his 14th start of the season, Richards has not made it out of the sixth inning and has only allowed less than three runs once across his past nine outings.

With his ERA  5.22, and with his only good statistic being his spin rates (which have dropped dramatically since the MLB’s crackdown on foreign substances) the Red Sox chose to kick him out of the rotation because of Chris Sale. Sale is set to make his first major-league start in over two years on Saturday.

Richards isn’t the only one who has seen their starting rotation spot removed, as Tanner Houck replaced Martin Perez in the rotation last week.

Boston debated having a six-man rotation earlier in the year, in order to have Houck in it, but ultimately decided on sending Houck to Triple-A Worcester and going with a five-man starting staff.

Richards’ last start was on Sunday, so don’t be surprised if the right-hander makes an appearance out of the bullpen tonight.

(Photo By Matt Stone/MediaNews Group/Boston Herald via Getty Images)