Right-hander Carson Fulmer is headed back to the Angels organization. Fulmer, who’d been with the Pirates on a minor league deal, was released by Pittsburgh earlier this week and has quickly signed a minor league deal to return to the Halos, per the MiLB.com transaction log. The Icon Sports client spent the 2023-24 seasons pitching between Triple-A Salt Lake and Anaheim as well.
A former first-round pick and top prospect, Fulmer never found his footing with the White Sox (his original club) or in subsequent stints with the Tigers, Orioles and Reds. He had a decent two-year run with the Halos, however, tossing a combined 96 2/3 innings with a 4.00 ERA, a 20.8% strikeout rate and a 10.5% walk rate from 2023-24. The bulk of that work came just last season, when he pitched a career-high 86 2/3 innings for Ron Washington’s club (29 relief outings, eight starts).
So far in 2025, Fulmer has worked 42 2/3 innings for the Pirates’ Triple-A club in Indianapolis and recorded a 4.64 ERA. He opened the season as a member of Indy’s rotation but struggled badly, yielding 17 runs in 28 2/3 innings. Since moving back to the bullpen on May 7, he’s pitched 14 innings with a 3.21 ERA and 12-to-5 K/BB ratio. Fulmer has pitched two or more innings in six of his seven bullpen appearances.
The Angels have spent much of the year scooping up pitching depth of all varieties as they try to piece together a passable staff. It hasn’t worked so far. Angels starters rank 22nd in the majors with a 4.33 ERA but are 28th in FIP, 29th in strikeout rate, 29th in walk rate and 30th in SIERA. Their bullpen has been even less effective, logging a 28th-ranked 5.75 ERA and issuing walks at the third-highest clip of any team in MLB. Fulmer is the latest in a growing line of veteran arms signed in-season on minor league deals, joining Hector Neris, Hunter Strickland, Buck Farmer, Andrew Vasquez and Sammy Peralta in that regard.
It’s not like we have anyone other than Dana at AAA.
You can find all kinds of future options by just bringing up young arms seeing who sticks. That’s the Angels figured out they’re leading up to ‘02. It was a bunch of middling prospects: Brian Anderson, Jason Dickson, the Shawn Boskie / Allen Watson reclamation projects, Jarrod Washburn, Scot Schoeneweis, Ramon Ortiz, Seth Etherton, Brian Cooper, Matt Wise. 2000 was the year they just dumped the bucket. And out of all those, it was Washburn, Ortiz, and Shoeneweis going into 2001. Then ‘02 comes around, and that’s when you finally get John Lackey. And a few years after that you get Santana, Weaver, and Saunders. Basically two different ways to build a rotation from within. Right now the Angels have to it the late 90s/early 2000s way. But will they?
Angels hoping he’ll pick up where he left off last season just like with Strickland, who has yet to allow an earned run this season.
He wasn’t great the first time around with the Angels, and he’s not been good since we let him go, so let’s sign him again.
I knew our pitching hadn’t been good but I didn’t realize that is was that bad. Wow.
Yeah, it’s that bad.
He was our 3rd best reliever last season and was better than league average. Fulmer was better last season than our closer has been this year. Glad to have him back considering what we have had to endure this season.
Having the honor of third best reliever on one of the worst bull pens last year is nothing to celebrate.
What part of he was better than league average did you miss?
No part.
Wow! There’s a blast from the past. I hope he catches on and helps the Halo’s out.
Someone needs to take away Perry’s Rolodex. Same names, same results.
He was a better than MLB average pitcher for the Angels last season. The pen is the worst in baseball. He can only help.
This signing means that Detmers will go back into the rotation and the Halos will send Kohanowicz to Salt Lake. The Angels will promote Dana and move Kendricks to the bullpen.
Dana still has to show that he is MLB ready.
If Chase Silseth is healthy soon, they might call him up. I love Rengifo. I don’t know what’s wrong with him. Maybe the Angels will call up Christian Moore. His defense is the only reason he is not playing 2B right now.