Right-hander Yadier Alvarez is in camp with the Dodgers, tweets Bill Plunkett of The Orange County Register. Alvarez was once a highly-touted prospect, with the Dodgers giving him a $16MM signing bonus in 2015 and Baseball America ranking him as the 26th prospect across the league in 2017. Despite being selected to the team’s 40-man roster prior to the 2019 season, there were concerns with his lack of control. In 2018, he pitched 48 1/3 innings at Double-A with an excellent 30% strikeout rate but a ghastly 20% walk rate.
In 2019, injuries limited him to just 3 2/3 Double-A innings and he was designated for assignment in March of 2020, eventually clearing waivers and being outrighted to the minors. Of course, the pandemic wiped out the minor leagues that year and Alvarez was only able to throw 3 2/3 Arizona Complex League innings in 2021. Despite all of those ups and downs, Alvarez is still relatively young, turning 26 on Tuesday. One silver lining of losing his roster spot two years ago is that he is not affected by the ongoing lockout, giving him a chance to show the Dodgers’ brass that he still has something to offer.
Another hurler looking for a bounceback with the Dodgers is Carson Fulmer, whom the club selected from the Reds in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft in December. Originally selected 8th overall by the White Sox in the 2015 draft, Fulmer also cracked Baseball America’s Top 100, coming in at #70 in 2016. However, he has struggled to establish himself in the majors, putting up a walk rate above 10% in each of the past six seasons. After bouncing around the waiver wire multiple times in recent years, he eventually cleared waivers in May of 2021. Plunkett spoke to the 28-year-old, who credits his former Vanderbilt teammate Walker Buehler with his current opportunity. “I think that he had chirped at the front office a little bit and tried to get me over here,” Fulmer joked. “He was excited (when the Dodgers acquired Fulmer). At the end of the day, he knows what I’m capable of. He just wanted me to be in the right place, the right situation.” Much like Alvarez, the loss of his roster spot gives Fulmer the benefit of participating in Spring Training and the upcoming minor league season, despite the lockout.
More news from teams in the west…
- Much like Alvarez and Fulmer, Riley Pint was a highly-touted youngster who dealt with control issues. Selected by the Rockies with the fourth overall pick in the 2016 draft, Pint eventually cracked Baseball America’s Top 100 list at #46 in 2017. But from that point on, his stock continued dropping due to the aforementioned control problems. In 2021, he pitched 10 2/3 innings at High-A with an incredible 34.7% strikeout rate but and inflated 20.4% walk rate. That’s a small sample, of course, but largely indicative of his body of work in the minors. Pint retired in June of last year but has now un-retired, as reported by Thomas Harding of MLB.com. “Everybody is on his own time frame. I always love seeing the kid,” says Rockies player development director Chris Forbes “He’s a fantastic kid. I’m glad to see him back.” Pint just turned 24 in November, meaning there’s plenty of time for him to rebuild his stock in the game if he can get back on track and improve his control.
- The ongoing lockout carries negative consequences for every player in the union, but among those with the potential to be most affected are those who have earned 40-man roster spots but were likely to spend this year in the minors. With Spring Training and the regular season both now delayed, they are losing crucial development time, along with losing access to team trainers and development staff. Chandler Rome of the Houston Chronicle spoke to some Astros’ prospects who were recently added to the team’s roster but were then locked out almost immediately after. This includes a surreal story of an absent-minded coach texting infielder Joe Perez, looking for a status update, with Perez having to politely remind the team employee that he’s not allowed to respond. “It’s definitely been something extraordinary,” Perez said.
Go Fulmer
Dodgers could get lucky with Fulmer. Could turn into another Jimmy Nelson type acquisition
Lucky it would have to be. Fulmer and Alvarez, what a pair. They could throw pitches at each other without much danger of anyone getting hurt.
He was a dissapountment in Detroit. He needs to do something about his extremely violent delivery. That’s probably why he is so inconsistent.
Wrong Fulmer. You’re thinking of former rookie of the year Michael Fulmer who is still on Detroit’s roster
I saw Riley Pint pitch back in 2019 and it was, hands down, the worst pitching performance I’ve ever seen. Didn’t get a single hitter out, heck I don’t think he got a single pitch in the strike zone. I wish him well, but he has a LOT of work to do on his control.
Was that in Asheville? The Tourists are my hometown minor league team and i suffered through A LOT of his starts. He really is a great guy and obviously has ‘the stuff’ based on his #4 selection in the draft, but he’s never been able to put it all together. Hopefully he returns with a vengence after this little break, and i’m definitely rooting for him!
He was pitching for the Tourists, but this game was in Hagerstown. By the time he got pulled, the Suns (rip) had about 6 runs on the board.
I’ll always remember Jeremy Guthrie against the Yankees on May 25th, 2015 – 1IP 9H 11R 11ER 3BB 1K 4HR 1HBP 60 pitches thrown. I’m not sure where that ranks all-time in worst ever pitching performances, (statistically or otherwise), but it’s certainly the worst beating I’ve ever seen!
it wasn’t as bad but remember in an all-star game Tom Glavine gave up nine hits, seven of them consecutively and five earned runs in 1 ⅔ innings
That’s easy lazy remark. Which game you talking about ⚾️
Riley Pint was always a questionable draft pick, especially for the Rockies..It is sad though that he was never able to harness some sustainable level of control, because he definitely had a TON of raw talent in his arm.
Idk, it just makes you wonder if he went somewhere else, would his career have been any different.
I’m not entirely sure where Colorado’s MiL teams are located, but in the altitude it couldn’t have been easy for a young kid who already had some control issues as it was…
The top of that draft was terrible so hard to blame them.
Yes, amk, an ugly group, they should have picked from the talented pool in the middle of the round, the middle of the 2nd round that is. That’s where the only real good ones are bunched — Reynolds, Bichette, Alonso. I think some in the middle of the 1st round are starting to come into their own though.
Pint pitched all in low elevation cities, although I guess Asheville is up a ways. Nothing like Denver. No, he was just a guy who so overwhelmed his opposition in Kansas as a high schooler that he never had to worry about command. Then it got in his head and he just broke down emotionally. Wouldn’t surprise me if he’s much better now. If nothing else he’s grown up a bit.
Joe Quart is twice as good.
He’s on the liter boards.
Explains why Zac Gallen has had MLB success.
Why would Joe Perez run his mouth off to the media about that?