The Pirates announced the acquisition of reliever Duane Underwood Jr. from the Cubs. First base prospect Shendrik Apostel will go to Chicago in return. To create 40-man roster space, Pittsburgh designated right-hander Carson Fulmer for assignment.
Underwood, 26, has thrown 36.1 innings out of the Chicago bullpen over the past three seasons. His 5.20 ERA isn’t particularly impressive, but Underwood has shown some promising peripherals. The right-hander has struck out an impressive 27.7% of hitters at the MLB level against a solid 7.7% walk rate. He was at his best last season, racking up strikeouts at a 30.7% clip while walking only 6.8% of batters. The right-hander averages just under 95 MPH on his fastball and also features a curveball and changeup, the latter of which has gotten plenty of whiffs in limited major league action.
Nevertheless, the Cubs designated Underwood for assignment earlier in the week. He never managed to stake a claim to a permanent spot in the Chicago bullpen, thanks largely to persistent trouble keeping the ball in the yard. Underwood is also out of options, meaning he can’t be sent to the minor leagues without being exposed to other teams. That’s less a concern for the rebuilding Pirates than it was for the playoff-hopeful Cubs.
Acquiring Underwood bumps Fulmer from the Pittsburgh roster for the second time in six months. The former eighth overall pick has been claimed off waivers by the Tigers, Pirates (twice) and Orioles going back to last July but hasn’t found a permanent home. Teams clearly remain intrigued by his promise, though. Fulmer has just a 6.34 ERA with poor strikeout (18.9%) and walk (13.9%) numbers over 105 MLB innings. Like Underwood, he is out of options. Any acquiring team must therefore keep him on the active roster or else again offer him to other clubs.
In exchange for Underwood, the Cubs pick up Apostel, a 20-year-old first baseman who signed with the Pirates out of Curacao. He had a .252/.381/.463 line in the Dominican Summer League between 2018-19. His older brother Sherten Apostel also originally signed with the Pirates and made his MLB debut last season with the Rangers.
dum move
Apostel is 196cm tall and weighs 111kg.
Middle name Gregorio.
Cub fans follow. Baaa Baaa
Why? Apostel was nothing great. Fulmer, while once promising, appears to be running out of chances. Esp when you can’t stick with the Bucs, who have DFA’d him 3 times.
Year after year, Underwood has been the king of inconsistency. Unhittable one day and a BP pitcher the next. So long and good luck.
I agree ! He looked good yesterday !? There has to be something else to keep on getting cut.
Chisox can now pick Fulmer back up, and resign the great Dr Don Cooper to work 5 more years with him.
Steve Stone and the Hawkeroo saw a great future for young Carson.
Orioles gonna reclaim Fulmer!
Or Tigers lol, whoever has a roster spot or sometime stash on 60 day DL
Designate someone else. Fulmer has some bullpen upside.
Fulmer and Payamps are this offseason’s ping-pong balls among waiver wire/dfa’s. Fulmer may need some time on a team inthe minor league organization for a prolonged period and be able to fix. Payamps is just Payamps..
He’d be more successful if he was “Payumps”
Jordan Humphreys too
I had a funny feeling that the Bucs were going to claim Underwood. I’m not sure that he’s any improvement over Fulmer, however.
Bucs have now DFA’d Fulmer three times in less than a year!
I think Fulmer is worth a claim.
well its an upgrade so…
Fulmer will be the Red Sox Opening Day starter.
honestly, I like some of their backens options. Houck was lights out last year and might be pushed out.
Oh ya, I kid around but they’ll be interesting. The core is still strong, Nate/E-Rod on top of the rotation is solid, and bottom line, the AL East ain’t what it used to be. I can easily see them chasing a wild card.
Eovaldi can only stay healthy in contract years. E-Rod as a TOR? I don’t think so. This is gonna be a rebuilding year for Sox. Not a big deal. They will be in the hunt soon enough. As a Yankee fan I prefer to see the Sox in the wild card chase.
I mean, you can’t make the pirates 40 man, it’s probably time to call it a career.
The only hope of success the Pirates had of success in 2021
Was to have been to have had an
Apostel in their organization.
Pirates are currently engaged in contract negotiations
With the ……………………………..
APOSTEL PAUL !!
I’m not sure the vision that struck Paul/Saul down was of the Jolly Roger.
I didn’t realize Fulmer was still in baseball. And to think, he was once a very promising prospect.
Not that I want him on the Sox now, because I don’t, but I wonder how well he would’ve done working with Katz as the pitching coach. Guess we’ll never know.
He was great on LA law
I got that, nice.
Nice. I also considered making a Blair Underwood joke.
Fullmer just pitched yesterday and looked good. I hope the Orioles resign him
Yea he looked good ! This first move by Ben that I don’t like !
White Sox ruined Fulmer by changing his mechanics and rushing him to the majors.
Had they let him alone and been open to him as a reliever, he may have had a chance.
I do not know why people draft players high then proceed to change what made them successful in the first place.
You might have something there maximumvelocity. With Cooper gone maybe he can get another shot as a reliever with Katz and Sox.
Fulmer is too far gone. Frankly, he’s never been very good at the ML level.
The irony of the first comment is very entertaining.
wont make a difference in pirates record . Helps maintain payroll flexibility
Fulmer reminds me of another once promising young starter that couldn’t figure it out. Andrew Miller bounced around until he finally went to the bullpen. Once there he became lights out. It’s time for Fulmer to realize his days as a starter are over. Move him to the bullpen and see how he does when he can turn it up a notch pitching one inning at a time.