The Mariners have signed right-hander Michael Fulmer to a minor league deal, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been with the Royals on a minor league deal but the log indicates he was released from that pact a few days ago.
Fulmer, 32, is having a nomadic year. He signed a two-year minor league deal with the Red Sox ahead of the 2024 season. He had undergone UCL surgery and was going to miss that entire campaign. He came into 2025 with a chance to earn a job on Boston’s roster. He didn’t break camp with the club but was called up by mid-April. He was designated for assignment a few days later, clearing waivers and electing free agency.
From there, he landed a minor league deal with the Cubs. He was selected to the big league roster in June but was again cut a few days later. He cleared waivers and elected free agency again, which led him to the Royals.
Around those transactions, he has thrown 5 2/3 big league innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits and two walks with three strikeouts. He has also thrown 54 1/3 Triple-A innings with a 3.98 earned run average, 29.8% strikeout rate and 10.5% walk rate.
Fulmer also has past success on his track record. He initially broke in as a starter with the Tigers and won American League Rookie of the Year in 2016. His results tailed off from there and he wound up in the bullpen, which led to some more good results. He tossed 190 1/3 innings from 2021 to 2023 with a 3.55 ERA, 24.6% strikeout rate and 9.4% walk rate.
As mentioned, Fulmer missed the 2024 season while recovering from surgery. This year, he’s mostly been stuck in the minors but is still getting strikeouts. The M’s recently lost Trent Thornton to an Achilles tear, subtracting a bit of bullpen depth. Fulmer fills in some of that depth without taking up a roster spot.
Photo courtesy of Nathan Ray Seebeck, Imagn Images
Houston is taking on water in the A.L West. This is the widest open the Mariners’ window has been in decades and I’m a bit surprised that Naylor/Suarez was their “big” deadline move.
That’s where Fulmer comes in!!!!
Who do you suspect it should have been? Suarez was widely considered the best rental bat on the market and he’s starting to heat up a bit. Naylor was considered the best 1B on the market, which was a huge position I’d need.
The struggles over the past week and a half are not on the offense, our starting pitching has been terrible.
Who were they supposed go for instead?
The guy who would’ve had 10 RBIs today!
WOW! Just about everybody in the baseball world thought that adding Suarez and Naylor for virtually nothing was brilliant.
This losing streak is because our elite starting pitchers are allowing almost one run for every out they record!!!
Chill bro – this too shall pass!
WOW! If only just about anybody in the baseball world knew that giving up almost a run for every out was a bad thing. Unless they were part of some gambling ring and finally figured out how to take advantage of that “half point” thing for betting lines. I mean “almost a run” has to be insider information right?
We can never have good pitching and hitting at the same time
Last year we had the October pitching but had a horrible offense that was only good after servais left
This year we have the playoff caliber hitting but our pitchers forgot everything from last year and got injured
Well what can we expect were holding down harry ford, starting Solano and Moore, and are manager looks to be over his head or playing favorites, hard to tell but alot of are guys aren’t in a great place hitting wise. I do put alot of this on the manager though, outside of adding to the bullpen, we got the two best hitters and naylor has been more then we could of traded for i hope they sign him long term.
nonchalanto- It would have been nice if you commented with something of substance instead of being snarky (in a ridiculous and nonsensical way, nonethless) to letsplay for no reason.
Tough career arc. Starts off ROY, has a strong second season, and then….3/4 of his lifetime WAR in those two seasons.
My elbow hurts just looking at the thumbnail image of his delivery.
The Cardinals are going to need to start trying to sign a couple of veteran starters to minor league deals. I’m sure the Cardinals were hoping to live out their pipe dream of not having any injuries to the starting rotation but reality is setting in.
Andre Pallante has completely lost focus. I don’t know if it’s fatigue or something else, but he is gone mentally. The body language is bad. He’s hitting batters, ignoring base runners and allowing easy steals, having pitch clock violations, and mostly just completely unable to locate his pitches. He needs a break of some kind. Old Scrooge DeWitt is just going to have to reach into his rainy day fund and sign a veteran to get through the end of the season without pressing young players into service.
Pallante just isn’t all that good.
You’re not wrong. But he’s not this bad. When he’s right, he works fast and throws lots of strikes. Right now, he is completely out of sync. He’s already passed his career high in IP. The weather in the midwest has been brutally hot and humid, even by St. Louis standards, for the past six weeks. I think he’s physically exhausted.
Who are these veteran starters, just waiting for a minor league opportunity, that you want them to sign? Do you want them to claim Gomber?
Yes. Gomber is perfect. Anyone to eat some innings is fine. There will be some veteran starters placed on waivers in the coming days. The Cardinals could afford to claim one in order to preserve their young arms.
For how good he was early in his career, it really stinks how his career spiraled
Fulmer is coming back from major surgery
Most pitchers coming off surgery need at least a year to get back to pitching their best.