Pirates Claim Carson Fulmer, Designate Guillermo Heredia
The Pirates announced Monday that they’ve claimed right-hander Carson Fulmer off waivers from the Tigers and designated outfielder Guillermo Heredia for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster.
Pittsburgh will be the third team in 2020 to try its hand in helping Fulmer to right the ship. The 26-year-old was selected by the White Sox with the No. 8 overall pick back in 2015. At the time, the Vanderbilt star was viewed as a potential high-end starter or at the very least a high-probability late-inning reliever. But he’s struggled virtually every step of the way since Triple-A, pitching to an ugly 5.39 ERA in parts of four seasons there and a less-palatable 6.57 mark in 101 1/3 MLB frames. The Tigers claimed him last month after the White Sox designated him for assignment.
Fulmer’s average fastball in 2020 sat at 92.3 mph — a far cry from the righty’s college days, when scouting reports pegged him as touching 97 mph with regularity. He boasted elite spin rates on his four-seamer and curveball as recently as last season, though, and Fulmer did manage a career-best 12.8 percent swinging-strike rate in this year’s tiny sample of 6 2/3 innings with the Tigers. That’s about all that went right for Fulmer, but the pitching-hungry Pirates were quick to snap him up on waivers in hopes that their staff can coax something more out of him. Fulmer is out of minor league options, so he’ll need to stick on the Bucs’ big league roster or else be designated for assignment a third time.
As for Heredia, he signed a one-year, $1MM contract with the Pirates over the winter but hasn’t delivered for the club. The 29-year-old appeared in just eight games and tallied a mere 18 plate appearances earlier this year before being optioned to the club’s alternate training site. Clearly the team wasn’t happy with what it saw there.
Heredia has appeared in 390 Major League games, mostly with the Mariners, and posted a combined .239/.317/.339 batting line. As a solid outfield defender with a bit of speed and a career .275/.338/.400 batting line against lefties, he can be a useful bench piece when he’s at his best, but he won’t get that opportunity with the Pirates, it seems. Pittsburgh will have a week to trade Heredia, release him or attempt to run him through outright waivers. He’d have enough service time to reject the outright assignment, but doing so would mean forfeiting the remainder of his guaranteed salary.
Tigers Designate Carson Fulmer For Assignment
The Tigers announced this morning that right-hander Carson Fulmer has been designated for assignment in order to open a spot on the roster for fellow righty Buck Farmer, who has been formally reinstated from the injured list.
Detroit claimed the out-of-options Fulmer earlier this year after the White Sox cut bait on the former No. 8 overall draft pick. The Tigers had hoped a change of scenery might help Fulmer turn things around after a dismal tenure in Chicago — 6.56 ERA, 83-to-64 K/BB ratio in 94 2/3 innings — but the former Vanderbilt star’s struggles continued. Fulmer tossed 6 2/3 frames with the Tigers and yielded five runs on eight hits, three walks and a hit batter with seven punchouts.
With the much more established Farmer returning from the injured list, the Tigers needed to either option out a different player or designate Fulmer for assignment, as his lack of options prevents him from being sent down without first clearing waivers. The Tigers will have a week to trade Fulmer, release him or try to pass the once-vaunted righty through waivers themselves. If he does clear, they’d be able to keep him in the organization’s 60-man player pool without dedicating a 40-man roster spot to him. At that point, Fulmer could head to the Tigers’ alternate training site in hopes of earning another look in the big leagues before season’s end.
Tigers Claim Carson Fulmer
The Tigers announced today that they have claimed right-handed pitcher Carson Fulmer off waivers from the White Sox, who designated Fulmer for assignment on Thursday. The Tigers will need to make a corresponding move to clear a spot for Fulmer on the 40-man roster.
As MLBTR’s Steve Adams examined at length in May, Fulmer still offers glimpses of the tools that made him a coveted prospect in 2015: his fastball, curveball, and cutter all boast near-elite spin rates. And yet, despite those solid numbers, those pitches—particularly the four-seamer and cutter—evidently haven’t gotten the desired results for Fulmer. He’s generated relatively few swings and misses on those pitches, and it’s resulted in a career 6.56 ERA and constant up-and-down movement between the Majors and minors.
That said, this is precisely the type of acquisition that seems ideal for a Tigers team with little to lose this year. Without foundational pitching pieces, Fulmer comes at a small cost, and there’s always the possibility that a change of scenery could allow him to finally grow into a productive Major Leaguer. He’s still just 26 years old, and with expectations low for the team, they can afford to take on reclamation projects such as Fulmer in hopes that something sticks.
Fulmer could be deployed either as a starter or reliever, though it’s unknown as of now what Ron Gardenhire has planned for his newest player; either way, the Tigers will look to do what the White Sox couldn’t and tap into some of the talent that made him a top draft pick five years ago. If pitching coach Rick Anderson can hone Fulmer’s mechanics and command, the Tigers might have found themselves a worthwhile addition who could contribute to their next winning team.
White Sox Designate Carson Fulmer For Assignment, Sign Ryan Goins To Minor League Deal
The White Sox set their Opening Day roster Thursday, announcing that they’ve designated former top-10 pick Carson Fulmer for assignment. Chicago also signed old friend Ryan Goins to a minor league deal and assigned him to its alternate training site and selected the contracts of four players: infielder Cheslor Cuthbert, outfielder Nicky Delmonico, left-hander Ross Detwiler and right-hander Codi Heuer. Additionally, veteran utilityman Andrew Romine was released by the organization.
Sox fans will surely be glad to see Yoan Moncada activated from the injured list and placed on the Opening Day roster after previously being out with Covid-19. The White Sox also called up right-hander Jimmy Lambert and catcher Zack Collins from their alternate site.
It’s a disappointing outcome for the Sox and Fulmer alike. The former Vanderbilt star was at one point considered during his junior year to be a possible No. 1 overall pick, but he’s simply never put it together in the Majors. I explored the Fulmer conundrum at length during the league’s shutdown, looking at the right-hander’s lengthy history of struggles in the Majors and upper minors. Fulmer was touted as one of the surest big leaguers in that year’s draft, as even his critics felt he was a high-probability late-inning bullpen piece. Those with reservations about taking him at the top of the draft weren’t so much worried that he’d bust completely but that he’d thrive “only” as a reliever rather than a starter.
Fast forward a half decade, and Fulmer is an out-of-options righty with a career 6.56 ERA in the Majors and 5.39 ERA in Triple-A. As detailed in the previously linked piece on him, there are plenty of positive indicators in his arsenal, and I personally have wondered how he might fare working at the top of the zone with his four-seamer, but the win-now White Sox clearly didn’t feel he was among their 30 best options. Perhaps his struggles will be pronounced enough that he’ll clear waivers, but one can also imagine a non-contender rolling the dice on his once touted arm.
Of the players selected to the 40-man roster today, Delmonico and Detwiler have both appeared for the Sox in the past. Delmonico will give them a left-handed bench bat with sparse MLB success, while Detwiler can soak up some innings if need be — either as a spot starter or long reliever. Cuthbert was once a high-end Royals prospect but has never hit much in five MLB seasons. Heuer, meanwhile, was Chicago’s sixth-round pick in 2018 and posted dominant numbers in the minors last year. He has long-term bullpen potential for them, and the Sox are surely excited to get a glimpse of how he’ll fare against MLB opposition.
As for Goins, he’ll return to the organization for a second season after hitting .250/.333/.347 in 52 games with the Sox last year. The longtime Blue Jays infielder doesn’t have much of a track record at the plate — he’s a career .230/.279/.335 hitter — but he can play all over the infield and is generally considered a strong up-the-middle defender.
When A Can’t-Miss Prospect Misses
This isn’t how Carson Fulmer‘s career was supposed to go. The former Vanderbilt ace was one of the top-ranked prospects in his draft class back in 2015, and virtually no mock drafts compiled by Baseball America, FanGraphs, MLB.com, etc. that spring had him dropping out of the top 10. At one point, Baseball America projected Fulmer to go to the D-backs with the No. 1 overall pick. “Fulmer is the surest big leaguer on the board, with a floor of elite closer,” BA wrote of Fulmer at the time — a pretty resounding endorsement considering that three of the players eventually selected ahead of him were Dansby Swanson, Alex Bregman and Andrew Benintendi.
Obviously, things haven’t played out for the now 26-year-old Fulmer as hoped. Everything went according to plan following that ’15 draft. Fulmer pitched a scoreless frame in the Rookie-level Arizona League before being jumping up to the ChiSox’ Class-A Advanced affiliate. Despite being about two years younger than the average competition in that league, Fulmer allowed just five runs on 16 hits and nine walks with 25 strikeouts in 22 innings (2.05 ERA). That strong debut landed him on the top 100 lists at Baseball America (70) and MLB.com (38).
Fulmer’s numbers a year later weren’t as stout. He averaged better than a strikeout per inning but also more than five walks per nine frames while working to a 4.76 ERA out of the Double-A rotation. The Sox called him up to the big leagues that July despite the shaky numbers — just 13 months after he was drafted. Some will suggest that the organization rushed him to the Majors, but Fulmer was viewed as a potential quick mover from the time he was selected. He closed out the game in his big league debut, firing two shutout innings of relief in a loss to the Angels. The righty struggled in a handful of subsequent appearances and went back to Triple-A to finish out the season.
Since that time, Fulmer has been optioned back to the minors eight different times. He’s generally remained healthy but hasn’t succeeded either in Triple-A (5.39 ERA in 243 2/3 innings) or in the Majors (6.56 ERA in 94 2/3 innings). Now, Fulmer is out of minor league options, so the White Sox will have to carry him on the Major League roster or expose him to waivers whenever play resumes. In that regard, the likely expansion of rosters for at least part of the 2020 season will work nicely in Fulmer’s favor.
Fulmer’s velocity isn’t as high as it once was. A heater that reached 97mph “often” in college, per Baseball America, has averaged 93.2 mph in the Majors (93.7 mph in 2019). His command issues have been exploited by more advanced hitters, and his walk rate and frequency of wild pitches have spiked since reaching Triple-A.
Despite the lack of success at the game’s top levels, Fulmer isn’t without positive indicators. The spin rate on his four-seamer and curveball were both elite in 2019, ranking in the 91st percentile and 87th percentile among big league hurlers, respectively, per Statcast. He recorded healthy swinging-strike rates on his curve, cutter and changeup. In Triple-A, he racked up 51 strikeouts in just 34 innings — a 13.5 K/9 and 33.6 percent overall strikeout percentage that were both easily career-bests at any level.
Might a change in approach benefit him? A look at his career fastball usage at Brooks Baseball shows that he’s long worked down in the zone with the pitch and did so almost exclusively in 2019 — even at a time when much of the league is favoring four-seamers at the top of and above the strike zone. His avoidance of elevated fastballs would help to explain the paltry 4.2 percent swinging-strike rate on his four-seamer in 2019.
At this point, Fulmer has been leapfrogged by a host of new young arms in the Sox’ system — Lucas Giolito, Dylan Cease, Michael Kopech and Reynaldo Lopez among them. The White Sox’ initial hopes of Fulmer quickly ascending to the Majors to anchor a rotation alongside Chris Sale and Carlos Rodon have long since been dashed. There’s still room for him to carve out a long-term place in the team’s bullpen if he can piece it all together once games resume, but it’s far from certain that he’ll ever right the ship with the Sox. Chicago’s clear switch to a win-now mode should shorten whatever leash he’s been given in recent years. A change of scenery and a new outlook/approach could perhaps be best for Fulmer, but he’ll likely get one final shot to make things work with the South Siders.
White Sox Select Contract Of Ervin Santana
The White Sox announced today that they have selected the contract of veteran righty Ervin Santana. He’ll make his first start for the club today after inking a minor-league deal this spring.
The groundwork for Santana’s ascension to the MLB roster had already been laid by the Chicago front office. There was already a 40-man roster spot to work with and the team optioned righty Carson Fulmer back to Triple-A yesterday.
It’ll be interesting to see what the 36-year-old Santana has left in the tank. He was sidelined for much of 2018 with a lingering finger injury and wasn’t effective when he was able to pitch. But he was stellar in the prior two seasons, turning in a 3.32 ERA over 392 2/3 total innings. The peripherals didn’t support quite those results, and expectations ought to be tempered, but there’s reason to hope he can return to being a solid MLB starter.
As for Fulmer, he’ll need to earn his way back into the majors or await an opening. He has now seen action in parts of four MLB seasons but hasn’t come close to fully harnessing the talent that led the South Siders to pick him eighth overall in the 2015 draft. Through 70 1/3 innings at the game’s highest level, Fulmer owns a 6.53 ERA with 7.8 K/9 and 5.9 BB/9.
White Sox Lose Nicky Delmonico To Fractured Hand, Option Carson Fulmer
White Sox outfielder Nicky Delmonico has been diagnosed with a fracture to the third metacarpal on his right hand, the club announced. Additionally, the team has elected to option righty Carson Fulmer after another rough outing tonight, as James Fegan of The Athletic was among those to tweet.
Delmonico is expected to miss approximately four to six weeks of action. The 25-year-old had turned in quite a promising debut effort in 2017. But he was struggling along with most of the rest of his team in the current campaign. Through 133 plate appearances, he carries only a .226/.331/.304 slash with 133 plate appearances.
That’ll put the organization’s outfield depth to the test, with Avisail Garcia already sidelined. Daniel Palka and Trayce Thompson could function in a platoon. The other options on the 40-man roster are Charlie Tilson and Ryan Cordell, though neither has hit well at all this year at Triple-A.
As for Fulmer, his outing today — which included eight earned runs and five walks in two innings — was just the latest sign of trouble. The former first-round pick has now allowed 29 earned runs with an unsightly 29:24 K/BB ratio in 32 1/3 innings on the year. He’s allowing home runs in bunches and generating a mediocre 6.7% swinging-strike rate, so there’s really not much in the way of positives at this point. Of course, he’s still just 24 years of age, so the Sox will hope he can still tap into his promise after some time at Triple-A.
Central Notes: Brewers, Gallardo, White Sox, Cubs
In the wake of Wade Miley‘s multi-week injury, the Brewers have set their season-opening starting five, Tom Haudricourt of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel relays. Brent Suter and Brandon Woodruff will fill out the rotation behind Chase Anderson, Zach Davies and Jhoulys Chacin, manager Craig Counsell announced Saturday. That spells bad news for offseason signing Yovani Gallardo, who won’t make the team, Haudricourt tweets. A highly successful Brewer from 2007-14, Gallardo rejoined the club for a non-guaranteed $2MM in December after spending time with the Rangers, Orioles and Mariners. The 32-year-old’s future is now in question. The Brewers could still trade Gallardo, according to general manager David Stearns. However, if no deal comes together by Monday, they’ll have to release him, per Haudricourt.
More on Milwaukee and a couple other Central teams…
- The Brewers wouldn’t have had two open spots in their rotation if not for the right shoulder injury top starter Jimmy Nelson suffered late last year. Nelson continues to make progress in his recovery from September surgery and could start working from the mound again as early as mid-April, Adam McCalvy of MLB.com reports. Meanwhile, catcher Stephen Vogt – out since February with a shoulder issue of his own – is aiming to return to game action by May 1.
- Like Milwaukee, the White Sox have also established their rotation for the beginning of the season. Righty Carson Fulmer has beaten out lefty Hector Santiago (who’s likely to stick around as a long reliever) for the No. 5 spot, Alyson Footer of MLB.com writes. Fulmer will round out a starting staff that’ll also feature James Shields, Lucas Giolito, Miguel Gonzalez and Reynaldo Lopez. Santiago, 30, signed a minors deal in February with the White Sox, with whom he pitched from 2011-13. Although Santiago has functioned as a starter for the majority of his career, he’s content to work in a relief role in his second go-round with the South Siders. “I’m open to whatever,” he said. “As long as I have a uniform on my back, I’m happy with the job that they give me. Right now, it’s in the bullpen as a long guy and I’ll be ready for any role.”
- The Cubs are going with Victor Caratini, not Chris Gimenez, to back up starting catcher Willson Contreras, according to Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times. Thanks to his well-known rapport with new Cubs right-hander Yu Darvish from their days in Texas, Gimenez seemed like the front-runner for the job at the outset of spring training; instead, he’ll head to Triple-A Iowa, per Wittenmyer. The 24-year-old Caratini, whom MLB.com ranks as the Cubs’ No. 8 prospect, hit .254/.333/.356 across 66 plate appearances during his first MLB action last season.
White Sox To Promote Carson Fulmer
The White Sox are promoting right-hander Carson Fulmer to the Majors today to work out of their bullpen, according to Dave Williams of Barstool Sports (links to Twitter). MLBPipeline.com’s Jesse Burkhart first tweeted that Fulmer was likely heading to the Majors. Fulmer will inherit the 40-man roster spot that was vacated by yesterday’s outright of right-hander Scott Carroll.
The Sox selected Fulmer, 22, out of Vanderbilt with the eighth overall pick in the 2015 draft. He dominated in 23 innings between Chicago’s Rookie League affiliate and Class-A Advanced affiliate in 2015 following the draft, but the 2016 season hasn’t gone quite as smoothly. Fulmer currently has a 4.76 ERA with 90 strikeouts against 51 walks in 87 innings for Chicago’s Double-A affiliate, though he’s pitched considerably better as of late. Over his past seven starts, Fulmer has a 3.51 ERA with a 54-to-17 K/BB ratio in 41 innings, and he’s yielded just two runs in his past 19 innings.
Fulmer entered the season as a consensus Top 100 prospect, and he’s currently 33rd on MLB.com’s Top 100 prospects list and 73rd on Baseball America’s midseason update of its Top 100 prospects. Some pundits at the time of the draft wrote that Fulmer projected as a future reliever, and that’s still a consideration for a number of scouts, though the Sox will presumably give Fulmer a chance to stick in the rotation down the road. Jim Callis and Jonathan Mayo of MLB.com reference Fulmer’s 93-97 mph fastball in their scouting report (which could play up in a short-relief role) and call his curveball a plus offering as well while noting that his changeup gives him potential for a third plus pitch. Fulmer, however, is slight in frame, as he’s listed at 6’0″ and 195 pounds. ESPN’s Keith Law has written on a number of occasions that Fulmer profiles best at the back of a bullpen due to that lack of size, a high-effort delivery and a lack of command.
Via Colleen Kane of the Chicago Tribune, manager Robin Ventura suggested the possibility of utilizing Fulmer in a relief role last week. “You’re trying to see if a kid can do it, and we did it with Carlos (Rodon) a little bit and Chris (Sale) has done it,” Ventura told the Tribune. “You bring ’em up here and you bring ’em through out of the bullpen and see if you can lighten their load a little bit and then see how they handle it.”
Fulmer’s long-term role with the Sox remains undetermined, but if he’s in the Majors to stay he’ll fall well shy of Super Two status, as the most service time he could accrue in 2016 would be 79 days. He’ll be arbitration eligible following the 2019 season and controllable through the 2022 season if he does not return to the minor leagues from this point forth, though obviously a demotion could further delay his path to arbitration and free agency.
AL Central Notes: Indians, Sox, Bruce, Rodon, Buxton
Indians president of baseball operations Chris Antonetti joined ESPN’s Buster Olney on his podcast on Tuesday (audio link) and discussed a number of topics, including the recent suspension of Marlon Byrd, the breakout of super utilityman Jose Ramirez, Michael Brantley‘s shoulder rehab, the upcoming amateur draft and the club’s financial flexibility as the trade deadline approaches. “I don’t expect that we’ll be limited,” said Antonetti. “In fact, the years in which we’ve been in contention, ownership’s always been great about providing us the resources that we would need to improve the team. I think that we’ll still always have to be cognizant of contracts that we take on, but if there’s the right player out there on the right deal, and the talent return is the right value for us, then I’m confident we’ll be able to improve the team.” Many expect Cleveland to be on the hunt for outfield help with Byrd and Abraham Almonte suspended due to failed PED tests and Brantley’s return still undetermined.
Elsewhere in the AL Central…
- The White Sox aren’t planning to simply sit back idly after acquiring James Shields from the Padres, writes Bruce Levine of CBS Chicago. The amount of money that San Diego kicked in to cover the cost of Shields’ contract has the White Sox positioned to add “at least two more important cogs for a playoff push,” per Levine. Chief among the Sox’ needs at this point are a left-handed bat and a left-handed setup man for the bullpen. Levine lists Jay Bruce as a player of interest, though he notes that when the Sox spoke to the Reds about Bruce in Spring Training, Cincinnati was “adamant” that the Sox would have to cover at least $11MM of the $12.5MM that Bruce is earning in 2016. Beyond that, Levine writes that the chances of the South Siders parting with top prospects Tim Anderson and Carson Fulmer in any trade this season, regardless of target, are “close to zero.” For those interested in some names that could be available as targets for the Sox, MLBTR’s Jeff Todd penned an updated list of the game’s top trade candidates earlier today.
- In other White Sox news, the team will skip the next start of left-hander Carlos Rodon due to discomfort in his neck which eventually extended into his arm, per CSN Chicago’s Dan Hayes (links to Twitter). The Sox had Rodon undergo an MRI as a precaution, but the test revealed no problems. GM Rick Hahn tells Hayes that Rodon wasn’t happy to be skipped, and Hayes notes that the problem appears to be short term in nature, as Rodon has been cleared to return to the mound. Miguel Gonzalez will start in his place on Thursday, and Rodon will rejoin the rotation following that.
- Byron Buxton chatted with Mike Berardino of the St. Paul Pioneer Press about his recent demotion and the way in which it allowed him to refocus and reevaluate his approach at the plate. As Berardino notes, Buxton has hits in all six games since returning from Triple-A Rochester, including multi-hit games in his past three contests. Buxton batted .336/.403/.603 in his 29 games with Rochester and credited Triple-A hitting coach Chad Allen for helping him to restore his confidence at the plate. While the six games since his return are obviously too small a sample from which to glean any form of definitive insight, it’s also the best stretch of games he’s delivered this season.