The Mariners have signed Carson Fulmer to a minor league pact, according to the right-hander’s MLB.com profile page. Fulmer has been assigned to Triple-A Tacoma.
After pitching 130 2/3 innings and appearing in every season from 2016-21, Fulmer didn’t see any big league action in 2022. The Dodgers acquired Fulmer on a waiver claim last winter and briefly selected him to their active roster at the end of April, but Fulmer was designated for assignment a few days later without appearing in a game. Los Angeles then outrighted Fulmer to Triple-A, where he spent the rest of the season before electing minor league free agency in October.
The year at Triple-A had mixed results, as while Fulmer had a 2.86 ERA over 56 2/3 innings for Oklahoma City, his 25.6% strikeout rate was only decent, and his 14.5% walk rate was well below average. A .230 BABIP seems to have greatly aided Fulmer in limiting damage, which could partially be why the Dodgers didn’t give him another call-up despite that quality ERA.
The White Sox selected Fulmer with the eighth overall pick of the 2015 draft, and he made his MLB debut just a year later. However, the righty didn’t live up to high expectations, posting a 6.56 ERA over 94 2/3 innings with Chicago before being designated for assignment in July 2020. This move sparked a flurry of transactions for the out-of-options Fulmer, who went to the Tigers, Pirates, Orioles, again to the Pirates, then to the Reds on a series of waiver claims in a span of under eight months. Cincinnati’s claim in March 2021 ended the carousel to some extent, as Fulmer spent the entire 2021 season in the Reds organization, though he struggled to a 6.66 ERA over 25 2/3 MLB innings.
Signings like this don’t mean much at all.
Pretty routine.
Some develop; most do not.
Tis the season to stock up on depth this way. Also the Mariners have a decent track record with moves like this. Yes he probably doesn’t help any and good chanced is DFAd a week after they bring him up, if they do, but his K rate is decent. It wouldn’t be a total shock if they found a way to make him useful.
I think sometimes they are just doing a signing like this to fill a need at a farm club.
Carson Fulmer’s been down the road quite a bit and has ideas that can help develop younger players.
I have a friend that played in the Angels organization and made it to AAA. He’s still friends with Wally Joyner and Jerry Narron plus some others. He told me that the minor leagues are indeed full of fillers. Of course, it’s just common sense. He said that the “Bonus Babies” are given every chance possible due to the upfront investments the teams make. Most guys figure out early on whether they might get to the “show” or not. This hack pitcher and good field/no hit outfielder made it as far as American Legion ball and would have killed to have been at any level of pro ball.
Its absolutely true there are farm hands that are there for just that, but I suspect he is more like third tier depth. Every team keeps players like that around in case they gave a stretch where their depth gets decimated. Usually once someone comes back they get optioned or DFA’d depending on the situation.
Guys like him, at this point in his career at least, usually get a week to cover an injury then latch on to someone else’s system for the same purpose. The Mariners have turned a few of those into ok pitchers in the past so who knows.
Two Fulmers in two days.
Big Fulmer news week.
He’s well traveled, that’s for sure.
Must be trying to play for every team in MLB before hanging it up.
4 teams in 7 years? Never gonna make it at that rate
Why?
By moves like this I mean with relievers in particular.
When you miss out on Michael.
When the transaction says that the player has been assigned to Triple-A, does that mean the player does not get an invite to spring training?
Not necessarily.
Papa if he doesn’t get an invite I imagine they have him come over and pitch some anyway. I find it hard to believe he isn’t on the list of invitees. Good for him we have taken many guys like this and made them a great RP. If nothing else we could trade him to the Mets throw in a Kelenic kid. Do they even pay any attention to WC teams? Maybe they skipped his hitting and watched his D. We could get a few good players out of him.
Buzz Killington and Papi Elf I need people for a fantasy baseball auction league, interested?
Dude pours gasoline on the fire. Surprised he got a deal.
My phone doesn’t work well with this app sorry if the message gets sent 5 times.
Seems like we-the Ms- have a lowish rated farm system, 20th by Keith Law. He opines we are one big trade away from having a bottom five farm rating. Jerry is adding and subtracting to strengthen the farm like he did in his first years at the MlB level. If Jerry does another trade they may need AAA arms like Fulmer.
The goal of a big league GM is to have a competitive major league team, not a good farm system. A good farm system generally means a failing big league team. Not always, but most of the time. So if you a playoff team, having a farm team in the 20s is not necessarily a bad thing.
Their system should look alot better next winter. They have several higher ceiling / variance players that are a ways from the bigs and several that could jump into the top 100 lists over the next year. Between that and the payroll flexibility they could have if they’re not trying to be a higher budget version of the A’s could keep them in the thick of things for a number of years if they don’t stupidly waste those resources. They probably should have spent more this off-season, they could easily be an 85 win team watching the playoffs from home, but they definitely have the resources to avoid another rebuild any time soon.
https://fantasy.espn.com/baseball/league/join?leagueId=106218744&inviteId=b0986a17-6e89-465f-ab45-391af2270919
Finally an article that starts with a players recent production instead of how he fared in little league. Save the ancient history stuff for the end like my guy Polishuk did. Well done, sir. Well done.
???
his best year was 2020
Seems to me I remember a Fulmer when in Detroit. This was also a time when Seattle was fishing around for pitching though they settled on someone else. At the time the limited exposure I saw of Fulmer he looked good to me, him being no sensation I thought check into this guy. But as time went on his resume indicate he’s less then reliable. maybe the only hope is he may become strikey long enough to become of some use, otherwise more depth for Tacoma.
That would be Michael Fulmer I suspect.
Michael Fulmer would have been an interesting pickup but he just signed with the Cubs.
Carson Fulmer is absolutely atrocious. He never came even remotely close to what he did at Vandy.
Just curious. What do minor league players earn per year? On average.