The Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with former top pitching prospect Carson Fulmer, per the transaction log at MiLB.com. The right-hander has been assigned to the organization’s Arizona Complex League affiliate for the time being, presumably as he builds up for an assignment to Triple-A Salt Lake.
Fulmer, 29, was selected by the White Sox with the No. 8 overall pick in the 2015 draft. He’d been speculated upon as a possible No. 1 overall pick prior, and while there were some concerns about his ability to stick as a starting pitcher even at the time of the draft, most expected that he was a good bet to serve as a high-end reliever even if the rotation didn’t pan out. Baseball America called him the “surest big leaguer on the board” in the spring of his draft season, and virtually every ranking of that year’s draft class had Fulmer at least within the top 50 prospects of the class — if not the top 10.
Suffice it to say, things haven’t gone according to expectations. While Fulmer breezed through High-A in 2015 following his selection, he struggled with command in Double-A in his first full season. He nevertheless reached he big leagues just over a year after being drafted, but he was hit hard in the South Siders’ bullpen that summer, allowing 11 runs in 11 2/3 innings before being sent down for some more seasons in Triple-A.
Fulmer made 15 starts and another 21 relief appearances for the ChiSox over the next three seasons but struggled in both roles, pitching to a 6.29 ERA with 57 walks against 73 strikeouts in a total of 83 innings, exhausting all of his minor league option years along the way and leaving the win-now White Sox with little choice but to designate him for assignment in advance of the 2020 season.
Including the Angels, Fulmer has now bounced to seven teams since that DFA. He posted a 6.00 ERA between the Tigers, Orioles and Reds from 2020-21 and spent the 2022 season with the Dodgers’ Triple-A affiliate. Fulmer had a decent showing in Triple-A last year, logging a 2.86 ERA in the hitter-friendly Pacific Coast League but still posting an ugly 14.5% walk rate in 56 2/3 frames. He signed a minor league deal with the Mariners just prior to 2023 spring training, but Seattle cut him loose at the end of camp. He’ll now land elsewhere in the AL West, as the Angels continue to cast a wide net and take looks at veteran arms in hopes of stabilizing their top-heavy bullpen.
I hope they use him vs. Sox this week.
Hahaha, maybe the next time they visit So Cal.
That will be one big inning for the Sox offense. This kid is the poster child of how bad the Sox are at scouting and developing players.
Carson Fulmer has a big time arm and a completely unrepeatable windup which is why he walks everybody. If he hasn’t figured that out he’s still useless.
The team that originally drafted him wasn’t smart enough to figure it out. The Sox are weak at player development because they don’t invest in it. All they in vest in are Cubans (and I don’t mean cigars).
The Sox ACTUALLY did try to get him to change his wind up but he kept going back to his own so they finally bailed on him. You can blame a lot on the Sox development process but not him.
He pitched for a variety of teams and coaching staffs with similar results. I wouldn’t say it was a result of coaching at this point.
Thanks google- I just realized the word I was looking for was ” Uncoachable”.
Yet another case of not being overly attached to prospects and taking these rankings with a grain of salt.
At this point if U R alive the Angels will give U a chance! This speaks volumes as to where their relief pitching is at!
Ryan Brasier is available for them!
I was catcher but I also pitched. No one could hit my screwball. My velocity is down to about 50mph on my fastball, but that should throw batters off. The Angels are in town tonight. Maybe I should ask for a tryout. I think I already know what they’re going to say. P.S.: I don’t recommend throwing a screw all. It’ll tear your arm out of it’s socket.
Screwball thrower to screwball commenter. You pivoted nicely good sir! Will look for you in section 140s, summer tshirt and $5 food day
Octavio Dotel played for 14 clubs, maybe Carson Fulmer can get DFA’d by 14.
You can’t teach strike-throwing. That’s why these minor leaguers with a 95 mph fastball and high walk rates are useless.
Pitching > Throwing
A guy who scouted places like the DR, PR, etc , said there’s plenty of pitchers in that area who can throw over 100mph. They just can’t control it.
Yep. Teams will take a hard thrower and hope to teach him control.
But rarely take a control pitcher and try to increase his velocity.
Of course you can teach strikethrowing. Not everyone can learn.
Repeatable mechanics are the key to throwing strikes, and many pitchers can learn.
Perhaps the most obvious example is Randy Johnson.
Yes, but you can also add strength, quickness, and range of motion to a guy who already has good mechanics, thereby increasing his velocity.
I think front offices put too much emphasis on the radar gun and not enough on how the pitch is delivered. A lot of guys only hit 95 MPH on the gun due to max effort and bad mechanics.
Randy Johnson’s trick was that he stopped putting his hands over his head and leaning toward the third base side of the rubber, which caused him to be wild at times and is also why he threw that pitch over John Kruk’s head. He kept his hands in front of him and started coiling with his leg kick, which kept his upper body above his legs. Once he did that, he became Randy Johnson.
Angels have helped Webb and Moore get their wild noodles under control, thoughts & prayers.
Noice pickup!!!
Depth can’t hurt, especially when it’s cheap.
He’s on pace to pass Edwin Jackson and Octavio Dotel in how many teams he’s played for. Shelby Miller is also on his heals for the record!
Why do people always blame the players when they fail to live up to expectations? Shouldn’t the people making the expectations shoulder a lot of the blame as well? But the prospect rankers have a neat little trick. By the time prospects flop, their lists are replaced by new ones. That way you won’t remember that Joey Gallo, Miguel Sano, Maikel Franco, Jake Lamb, and DJ Peterson were more highly ranked third basemen than Rafael Devers in 2015.
Yeah, I hate prospect hype. They are rarely correct and it puts so much pressure on the kids they are talking about. I look at Adell as a recent victim of the prospect hype.
The highest he ever ranked was #38 on MLB and #70 on BA. He was not a highly ranked prospect regardless of what MLBTR says.
All top 100 prospects are generally considered to be highly ranked.
“Baseball America called him the “surest big leaguer on the board” in the spring of his draft season, and virtually every ranking of that year’s draft class had Fulmer at least within the top 50 prospects of the class — if not the top 10.”
He never ranked higher than 70th by BA as a prospect once he was drafted. A top 50 draft pick ranking is not necessarily a highly ranked prospect. He wasn’t one.
He did pitch in the majors, so they weren’t wrong about that.
Last time I checked, 70th resides within the top 100, so I am sticking with my original assessment.
The “surest big leaguer on the board” doesn’t fall to #70 and never rise beyond that. Sorry, not a top prospect.
Lottery tickets are fun.
He’s not blocking anyone.
Good luck.
He will be in Tempe for a while, so he is not even blocking someone in the minors.
Maybe those ginormous goggles are throwing him off his timing. Like wearing beer goggles that throw off all logic at 1am
Just a batting practice arm….
I wonder if MLBTR just copies and pastes the Carson Fulmer history. Why not? Every year, same old story, different team.
All these people dissing the Angels for giving the kid a MINOR LEAGUE contract and sending him to spring training camp to work on his mechanics. Are you really that dense?
This is a no risk signing. There is no timetable for him to pitch in the minors, let alone for the Angels major league squad. Maybe the Driveline guys on the Angels can make him a serviceable reliever. If not, they release him. No harm no foul.
Last season he pitched to a 2.86 ERA for the Dodgers AAA squad. That is really good in the PCL. After a stretch in Tempe getting coached up, if he can come close to that with the Bees he could be a low leverage reliever for the Angels in the 2nd half. Until then, just chill out.
outinthefield – I agree.
He isn’t taking up a spot on the 40 man, so why not take a look. I don’t understand the dissing.
White Sox legend
Wow this game is getting away from us in a hurry.