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Transactions

Reds Outright Randy Wynne

By Darragh McDonald | April 24, 2025 at 4:10pm CDT

The Reds have sent right-hander Randy Wynne outright to Triple-A Louisville, according to his transactions tracker at MLB.com. He had been optioned earlier this week but there was no previous indication he had been removed from the 40-man roster, so this would appear to drop the club’s count to 39.

Wynne, 32, was selected to the club’s roster on Sunday. Hunter Greene had only lasted three innings in Saturday’s game, forcing the bullpen to sop up five frames in a road loss. Wynne gave them a fresh arm for Sunday, with the Reds planning to do a bullpen game. They went on to win 24-2, with Wynne taking the final three innings. He allowed one run on three hits and a walk, while striking out three.

After throwing those three innings, he likely wasn’t going to be available for a few days, so the Reds optioned him back down to Louisville. It appears they also quietly put him on waivers and passed him through unclaimed. This is his second career outright, which gives him the right to elect free agency, though it’s not yet clear if he will do so. The Reds had done basically this same thing in 2023, bringing him up for one outing before outrighting him off the roster.

He now has 5 1/3 innings pitched across two major league appearances with a 3.38 earned run average. Dating back to the start of the 2021 season, he has thrown 406 2/3 minor league innings with a 4.91 ERA, 15.4% strikeout rate and 5.2% walk rate.

Photo courtesy of Daniel Kucin Jr., Imagn Images

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Cincinnati Reds Transactions Randy Wynne

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Blue Jays Sign Connor Overton To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | April 24, 2025 at 11:20am CDT

The Blue Jays and righty Connor Overton are in agreement on a minor league contract, per the transaction log at MLB.com. The KHG Sports client spent spring training with the Mets and pitched well (5 1/3 innings, two runs six hits, one walk, three strikeouts) but didn’t make the club and was released in late March. He’ll now head back to the Blue Jays organization, where he made his MLB debut in 2021. He’ll head straight to Triple-A Buffalo.

The 31-year-old Overton has seen big league time in parts of three seasons, suiting up for the Jays, Pirates and Reds. He’s pitched 59 1/3 major league frames and carries a 4.85 ERA in that time. Overton has fanned 15.7% of his opponents, issued walks at a 9.4% clip and kept 38.7% of his opponents’ batted balls on the ground.

All of those rate stats check in worse than the respective MLB averages, but Overton has a strong track record in Triple-A. He’s pitched in parts of five seasons at the top minor league level, totaling 116 1/3 innings with a 3.87 ERA, a 21.4% strikeout rate, a 5.3% walk rate and a 44.8% ground-ball rate.

The Jays are currently operating with four starters: Kevin Gausman, Chris Bassitt, Jose Berrios and Bowden Francis. Future Hall of Famer Max Scherzer signed a one-year deal over the winter but has been sidelined by a nerve issue in his thumb that has caused other problems in his right arm. Toronto has turned to lefty Easton Lucas for four starts — two of which were excellent (combined 10 1/3 shutout innings) and two of which were disastrous (combined 14 runs in 6 2/3 frames). They recently called up 27-year-old righty Paxton Schultz for his MLB debut, wherein he tossed 4 1/3 scoreless innings of long relief.

Schultz could step into the vacant fifth spot in the rotation, and Toronto also has righty Jake Bloss in Triple-A. He’s had a tough start to his 2025 season, but Bloss ranked on the back end of multiple top-100 prospect rankings last year and was a key piece in the return the Jays received when trading Yusei Kikuchi to the Astros.

The Blue Jays’ depth beyond Schultz, Bloss and Lucas is fairly thin, due in large part to injuries. Alek Manoah is still on the mend from UCL surgery and won’t be an option until late this season. Left-hander Ricky Tiedemann was widely considered one of the top pitching prospects in all of baseball before undergoing Tommy John surgery last July. Righty T.J. Brock had Tommy John surgery in January. Southpaw Adam Macko suffered a meniscus tear early in spring training and underwent surgery in late February. Tiedemann, Macko and Brock were considered three of Toronto’s best and near-MLB-ready pitching prospects. Veteran Eric Lauer is in Triple-A Buffalo on a minor league deal but has had a rocky start to his season as well.

Given all that uncertainty, it’s not all that surprising to see the Jays turn to a familiar face to provide some further depth for the staff. Overton won’t be an immediate option, but if he pitches well in his first few turns with the Bisons, he could find himself in the mix for a big league look late next month or early this summer.

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Toronto Blue Jays Transactions Connor Overton

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White Sox Re-Sign Omar Narvaez To Minor League Deal

By Anthony Franco | April 23, 2025 at 9:55pm CDT

The White Sox brought Omar Narváez back on a minor league contract. The deal was announced by their Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte, where the veteran catcher has been assigned.

Narváez had elected free agency on Monday after being outrighted off Chicago’s major league roster. He’d spent a week in the big leagues after the Korey Lee injury, appearing in four games as the backup behind Matt Thaiss. He went 2-7 with a couple walks. The Sox called up well-regarded prospect Edgar Quero on Thursday, pushing Narváez out in the process.

It’s common for players to re-sign on a fresh minor league deal after rejecting an outright assignment. Narváez seemed like a candidate to look elsewhere, as the Sox don’t have a great path to playing time behind the plate. Quero should get regular playing time, while Thaiss is out of options and cannot be sent down without going on waivers. Top prospect Kyle Teel is the starter in Charlotte, leaving Narváez to work as his backup in the minors.

Narváez is clearly comfortable with the situation. He spent the first three years of his big league career with the Sox between 2016-18. He developed into a solid #1 catcher for the Mariners and Brewers thereafter, though his production has tanked over the past few seasons. He owns a .201/.278/.286 slash line since the start of 2022.

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Chicago White Sox Transactions Omar Narvaez

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Rangers Select Nick Ahmed, Place Corey Seager On Injured List

By Anthony Franco | April 23, 2025 at 7:30pm CDT

The Rangers announced that they’ve placed Corey Seager on the 10-day injured list with a right hamstring strain. Texas selected Nick Ahmed onto the roster in his place. They designated left-hander Walter Pennington for assignment to open a 40-man roster spot.

Seager pulled up as he ran out a ground-ball during yesterday’s win in Sacramento. He immediately subbed out of the game. Josh Smith, who had started in center field, came in to play shortstop. Leody Taveras drew into center field off the bench. Any kind of hamstring strain usually results in an IL placement, but the Rangers seem optimistic that they’ve avoided the worst. Kennedi Landry of MLB.com notes that Seager is expected back right around 10 days from now.

The five-time All-Star has started 20 of 23 games at shortstop. Smith has started twice, while the since-optioned Jonathan Ornelas made one appearance. Seager has joined Smith and Wyatt Langford as the most productive hitters in an otherwise struggling lineup. He’s hitting .286/.345/.468 with four homers through 84 plate appearances.

Smith made his first major league start in center field last night. He could move back to the infield on a regular basis while Seager is out. That’d push Taveras back into everyday center field work. The switch-hitting outfielder is off to a .197/.210/.246 start and has yet to hit a home run through 62 plate appearances. If the Rangers want to keep Smith in center, they’d turn to the veteran Ahmed as their starting shortstop.

This will be the 12th big league season for Ahmed, a two-time Gold Glove winner who has spent the majority of his career with the Diamondbacks. Arizona released him late in the ’23 campaign. He divided last season between the Giants, Dodgers and Padres and combined for a .229/.267/.295 batting line across 228 plate appearances. The 35-year-old signed an offseason minor league deal with Texas. He had a big spring, batting .324 with a trio of homers over 15 games.

It wasn’t enough to break camp. Ahmed was granted his release before Opening Day but returned to the organization on a new minor league contract last week. He’d been working out at their Arizona complex rather than playing in Triple-A. Spring Training numbers aside, the Rangers won’t expect much from Ahmed offensively. He should remain a plus on defense. Statcast credited him with nine Outs Above Average across 554 1/3 innings last season.

The roster shuffling squeezes out Pennington, who made 15 relief appearances for Texas last year. The 27-year-old made his big league debut with the Royals last July. Kansas City dealt him to Texas for Michael Lorenzen at the deadline. Pennington carried a 2.26 ERA through 37 Triple-A appearances at the time. He worked 17 1/3 innings out of the Texas bullpen after the trade. While he only allowed six earned runs, he issued 11 walks against 16 strikeouts.

Pennington made four appearances this spring, allowing three runs on eight hits with two walks and strikeouts apiece. Texas initially optioned him to Triple-A but reassigned him to the complex before Opening Day. There hasn’t been any indication of an injury, but Pennington hasn’t made any regular season appearances in the minors.

Texas will have five days to trade Pennington or place him on waivers. Assuming he hasn’t suffered any kind of undisclosed injury, they could attempt to outright him to the minors. (Injured players cannot be outrighted, so they’re almost always released after a DFA.) Last year’s strong numbers in Triple-A could get him some attention on the waiver wire. Pennington has two minor league option years remaining.

Shawn McFarland of The Dallas Morning News relayed the moves before the club announcement.

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Texas Rangers Transactions Corey Seager Nick Ahmed Walter Pennington

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José Leclerc Shut Down With Lat Strain

By Darragh McDonald | April 23, 2025 at 6:18pm CDT

6:18pm: Leclerc will be shut down from throwing for an undermined amount of time, reports Martín Gallegos of MLB.com. He’ll go for a second opinion next week and seems to be in for an extended absence.

5:00pm: The Athletics announced a series of roster moves today, including the previously-reported promotion of prospect Nick Kurtz, which is now official. They also recalled pitchers Grant Holman and Hogan Harris. In corresponding moves, they optioned infielder Max Muncy and left-hander Jacob Lopez, as well as placing righty José Leclerc on the 15-day injured list with a right lat strain.

Leclerc was put into last night’s contest but departed after just seven pitches due to shoulder soreness. Manager Mark Kotsay told reporters, including Jessica Kleinschmidt of Baseball America, that it was more of a strain than soreness.

That makes today’s IL stint fairly unsurprising but it’s still unwelcome for the A’s. Leclerc was the club’s big offseason bullpen investment, as they gave him $10MM on a one-year deal this winter. Throughout his career, he has generally been able to rack up punchouts, even if he gives out a high number of free passes. At this point, he has 369 1/3 major league innings with a 3.34 earned run average, 30.8% strikeout rate and 13.1% walk rate.

He’s off to a rough start so far this year but it’s only nine innings and it’s possible that the shoulder has been bothering him even before this IL placement. His fastball is averaging 94.2 miles per hour this year, a drop from last year’s 95.3 mph. All his other pitches are down by similar amounts.

The A’s surely hoped that he would be a key setup guy for closer Mason Miller but the early results have been shaky and he’s now going to be out of action for at least a couple of weeks. Guys like Tyler Ferguson and Justin Sterner have been given some leverage work early on and will try to hold onto those roles while Leclerc is out.

Photo courtesy of Joe Nicholson, Imagn Images

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Oakland Athletics Transactions Grant Holman Hogan Harris Jacob Lopez Jose Leclerc Max Muncy (2002) Nick Kurtz

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Angels Designate Ian Anderson For Assignment

By Darragh McDonald | April 23, 2025 at 5:25pm CDT

The Angels announced today that they have selected the contract of right-hander Carl Edwards Jr. and recalled righty Víctor Mederos. In corresponding moves. they optioned righty Michael Darrell-Hicks and designated righty Ian Anderson for assignment.

Anderson was just acquired from Atlanta prior to Opening Day. It was a one-for-one swap with lefty José Suarez going the other way. It seems neither club was particularly committed to the player it acquired. Suarez was designated for assignment by Atlanta on Monday and now the Angels have followed suit with Anderson just two days later.

The results from Anderson have not been good so far this year. A starter for most of his career, the Halos kept him in relief. He tossed 9 1/3 innings over seven appearances but he has allowed 12 earned runs in that time, with eight strikeouts and seven walks.

That performance has bumped him off the roster. Since he’s out of options, the Angels had to remove him from the 40-man roster entirely. They will now have a week to determine what’s next for him. The waiver process takes 48 hours, so the Angels could take up to five days to explore trade interest.

If any club wants Anderson, it would be based on his results from a few years ago. Over 2020 and 2021, he tossed 160 2/3 innings with the club, posting a 3.25 earned run average in that time. His 10% walk rate was a tad high but he also punched out 24.5% of batters faced and got grounders on 49.9% of balls in play. He also made four postseason starts in each of those seasons, helping Atlanta win the World Series in the latter season.

But it’s been rough sledding since then. His ERA jumped to 5.00 in 2022 and then he required Tommy John surgery in April of 2023, shortly after he had been optioned to the minors. He spent the rest of 2023 recovering. He returned to the mound last year and logged 68 innings over 15 minor league starts. He had a 3.44 ERA in those with a 23.8% strikeout rate, 10.1% walk rate and 51.9% ground ball rate.

He exhausted his options during that time, which has led to his current roster bubble situation. Perhaps he can find some club that’s willing to give him a roster spot and some time to get back on track. He hasn’t been good for a few years but health was at least part of that. He’s a former third overall pick, top prospect and even has some past major league success. If he lands somewhere, he has less than three years of major league service, meaning he could be retained for three years beyond this one.

As for Edwards, he’s a veteran journeyman. He actually signed with a Mexican League club in early March but the Angels signed him a couple of weeks later. He has tossed 11 2/3 innings over seven appearances for Triple-A Salt Lake with a 1.54 ERA. His major league career goes back a decade, with a 3.54 ERA in 280 innings, but it’s been almost two years since he was a regular. His 2023 season was ended by a stress fracture in his shoulder and he only made one appearance in the majors last year.

Last night, starter José Soriano only lasted 3 1/3 innings, forcing the Angels to lean heavily on the bullpen. That included Anderson and Darrell-Hicks, who have been swapped out for two fresh arms.

Photo courtesy of Sam Navarro,Imagn Images

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Los Angeles Angels Transactions Carl Edwards Jr. Ian Anderson Michael Darrell-Hicks Victor Mederos

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Mariners Select Casey Lawrence

By Darragh McDonald | April 23, 2025 at 2:40pm CDT

The Mariners announced that they have selected the contract of right-hander Casey Lawrence. Fellow righty Sauryn Lao was optioned to Triple-A Tacoma in a corresponding active roster move. To get Lawrence onto the 40-man, outfielder Víctor Robles was transferred to the 60-day injured list. Robles suffered a left shoulder dislocation a couple of weeks ago and isn’t expected back for several months.

Lawrence and the Mariners seem to have an arrangement that is working for both of them. The season is only a few weeks old but this is already the third time he has been selected to the roster. He signed a minor league deal with the M’s in the winter and was called up to the majors on April 9th. A few days later, he was designated for assignment, cleared waivers and elected free agency. He returned on a fresh minor league deal and was back on the roster by April 18th. Once again, he was quickly DFA’d and cleared waivers but is now back on the roster a third time.

Around those transactions, he has served as a multi-inning reliever for the club. He has logged five innings across three appearances thus far, having allowed two earned runs. By continually shuffling him on and off the roster, the Mariners can keep fresh arms moving in and out of the bullpen.

Lawrence is out of options, which necessitates him continually being removed from the 40-man. He has the right to elect free agency as a player with a previous career outright but seems content to circling back to the Mariners each time. From his perspective, he gets to add a bit of major league pay and service time, not a bad outcome for a 37-year-old journeyman.

Emerson Hancock, the least established member of the Seattle rotation, takes the ball tonight for the M’s at Fenway Park. If he gets into trouble, Lawrence will likely be called upon to sop up some innings and save the rest of the bullpen before tomorrow’s day game.

Photo courtesy of Stephen Brashear, Imagn Images

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Seattle Mariners Transactions Casey Lawrence Sauryn Lao Victor Robles

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Cubs Sign Nicky Lopez, Designate Gage Workman

By Steve Adams | April 23, 2025 at 2:35pm CDT

The Cubs announced Wednesday that they’ve signed infielder Nicky Lopez to a big league deal. Infielder and Rule 5 pick Gage Workman was designated for assignment to open a spot on the roster. Photographer Sam Bernero first spotted Lopez heading into Wrigley Field this afternoon and tweeted out a photo she snapped. Shane Riordan of 670 The Score subsequently reported that Lopez, an Octagon client, was signing a major league deal.

Chicago also selected the contract of recently acquired lefty Drew Pomeranz, optioned righty Gavin Hollowell to Triple-A Iowa and transferred lefty Justin Steele from the 15-day IL to the 60-day IL (thus opening a 40-man spot for Pomeranz). Steele recently underwent elbow surgery and will miss the remainder of the 2025 season, so his move to the 60-day IL was a formality.

Lopez was with the Cubs as a non-roster invitee in spring training but didn’t make the Opening Day club. He opted out of that deal and signed with the Angels, who needed some infield depth due to a handful of injuries. The Halos reinstated shortstop Zach Neto last week and designated Lopez for assignment, after which he elected free agency.

The 30-year-old Lopez appeared in five games and was hitless in six plate appearances in his short stint with the Angels. He’ll hope for a larger look with the Cubs, who have some questions in the infield after optioning struggling top prospect Matt Shaw and seeing the now-designated-for-assignment Workman struggle at the hot corner as well. Veteran utilityman Jon Berti has been seeing more time at third base recently, though he hasn’t hit much either — just .250/.344/.250 in an admittedly small sample of 32 plate appearances.

Lopez, like Berti, brings a versatile and high quality glove to the Cubs. He’s spent the bulk of his career in the middle infield where he grades as a plus-plus defender at both positions. He’s less experienced at third base but still has strong grades in nearly 400 frames there (7 Defensive Runs Saved, 6 Outs Above Average).

Excellent as Lopez is on the defensive side of the coin, his bat leaves plenty to be desired. He’s a career .247/.311/.313 hitter in 2352 plate appearances at the MLB level, and even that modest production is skewed by what now looks like a clear outlier campaign in 2021, when he batted .300/.365/.378. In three-plus seasons since that time, Lopez has limped to a .232/.301/.286 line between the Royals, Braves, White Sox and Angels.

Workman, 25, was selected out of the Tigers organization in December’s Rule 5 Draft and made the Opening Day roster after he hit .364/.420/.705 in 50 spring plate appearances. He hasn’t carried that outstanding production over to the regular season. He’s appeared in nine games but tallied only 15 plate appearances, during which he’s gone 2-for-14 with a walk. Workman never got a true look with the Cubs, which isn’t surprising, as it’s difficult for contending clubs to carry a career minor leaguer who can’t be optioned to the minors.

Workman is viewed as a plus defender at third base with plenty of raw power and too much swing-and-miss in his offensive profile. He spent the 2024 season with the Tigers’ Double-A affiliate, where he batted .280/.366/.476 with 18 homers, 30 steals, an 11.7% walk rate and a bloated 27.5% strikeout rate in his third season of action at that level. He’s yet to appear in a Triple-A game.

Now that he’s been designated for assignment, Workman will be placed on outright waivers and offered to the rest of the league (excluding the Tigers). If he goes unclaimed, he will by rule be offered back to the Tigers for $50K.

The veteran Pomeranz hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2021 due to a lengthy series of injuries. He inked a minor league deal with the Mariners in the offseason and tossed 9 2/3 frames with their Triple-A affiliate in Tacoma before being traded to the Cubs for cash. He allowed five earned runs (4.66 ERA) on nine hits and six walks (plus two hit batsmen) during that short stint with Tacoma. Clearly, Pomeranz’s command was an issue, but he also fanned 14 of his 43 opponents (32.6%) and sat 92.3 mph on his heater — a good bit north of the 90-91 mph he was sitting at during minor league stints with the Padres and Dodgers over the past two seasons.

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Chicago Cubs Transactions Drew Pomeranz Gage Workman Gavin Hollowell Justin Steele Nicky Lopez

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Rockies Option Zac Veen, Outright Evan Justice

By Steve Adams | April 23, 2025 at 1:06pm CDT

The Rockies announced Wednesday that they’ve optioned outfielder Zac Veen to Triple-A Albuquerque and assigned lefty Evan Justice outright to Albuquerque after he cleared waivers. Veen’s return to Triple-A clears the way for center fielder Brenton Doyle to be reinstated from the bereavement list.

Veen, 23, was the ninth overall draft pick back in 2020 and for several years ranked among the sport’s top 100 prospects. His stock has dipped in recent seasons as his production wilted a bit in the upper minors. He put together a solid 2024 campaign, however, slashing.258/.346/.459 between Double-A and Triple-A — although he was far more productive at the lower of those two levels. Veen got out to a nice start in Triple-A this year, hitting .387/.472/.677 in 37 plate appearances, earning his first call to the show with that impressive output.

Things didn’t go well for Veen in Denver. He appeared in a dozen games with the Rox and floundered at the plate, hitting just .118/.189/.235 in an identical amount of playing time (37 plate appearances) to his early run in Albuquerque. Big league pitchers punched Veen out 14 times (37.8%), and he chased pitches off the plate at an ugly 36.6% rate. His 58.3% contact rate, as measured by Statcast, is the sixth-lowest in baseball among hitters with at least 30 plate appearances.

Rough as that debut effort was, it came in a small sample and was preceded by a track record of generally solid minor league production. Veen may no longer be viewed as the potential star outfielder he was seen as a couple years ago, but he touts a career .263/.358/.430 batting line in the minors — including a .266/.336/.531 line in 129 Triple-A plate appearances. He also only just turned 23 this past December, meaning he reached the majors at an age when most prospects — certainly the majority of college draftees — are still in the minors. He’ll head back to Triple-A for the time being and continue to refine his approach, and barring some form of major injury, it’s likely he’ll return to the big leagues at some point in 2025.

In the meantime, the Rockies will deploy an outfield with Doyle in center, where he’ll be flanked by a combination of Mickey Moniak, Nick Martini, Jordan Beck and Sean Bouchard. It’s a patchwork collection of corner options, which only further underscores that there ought to be a place for Veen later on if he continues to show well in Albuquerque. Martini is a 34-year-old journeyman. Bouchard is a homegrown product who’s in his fourth partial season. He’s fanned in nearly 31% of his big league plate appearances and will turn 29 next month. Moniak was a low-cost, one-year signing who can work in a fourth outfield role. Beck, like Veen, has been viewed as a top prospect within the Rox system but has yet to piece things together in the majors.

As for the 26-year-old Justice, he’ll stick with the Rockies as a depth option. The 2021 fifth-rounder made his big league debut in 2023 and has pitched 7 2/3 frames for Colorado since. He’s been roughed up for seven earned runs in the majors and has had a tough start in Triple-A as well, surrendering six runs with more walks than strikeouts in 6 2/3 innings. Justice’s 2024 season was shortened by a back injury that required a monthslong absence. He’s had trouble staying on the mound, also missing time with arm troubles in earlier seasons, but Justice has fanned more than 28% of his opponents in pro ball.

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Colorado Rockies Transactions Brenton Doyle Evan Justice Zac Veen

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Cubs, Michael Fulmer Agree To Minor League Deal

By Steve Adams | April 23, 2025 at 11:42am CDT

The Cubs have agreed to a minor league deal with right-hander Michael Fulmer, per Tommy Birch of the Des Moines Register. The BBI Sports Group client is headed to Triple-A Iowa for the time being. Fulmer was designated for assignment by the Red Sox last week and recently rejected an outright assignment in favor of free agency.

Fulmer, 32, spent the 2023 season in the Cubs’ bullpen and logged 57 innings with a 4.42 ERA, a 27.4% strikeout rate and an 11.8% walk rate. That marks Fulmer’s last full, healthy season. The Cubs announced that October that Fulmer had undergone a UCL procedure in his right elbow, which wiped out his entire 2024 campaign.

Fulmer signed with the Red Sox on a two-year minor league contract and spent last season rehabbing with the organization. Interestingly, he was stretched out to work multiple innings in spring training this year and began the 2025 campaign as a starter with Boston’s Triple-A affiliate in Worcester. Fulmer pitched well in 11 2/3 minor league frames, logging a 3.09 ERA with an 18-to-6 K/BB ratio (37.5 K%, 12.5 BB%). He made one big league appearance with the Sox, yielding three runs in 2 2/3 innings, before being designated for assignment.

Rotation work is hardly a new role for Fulmer, who not only broke into the majors as a starter but captured 2016 American League Rookie of the Year honors while pitching in that role with the Tigers. Fulmer was a key member of Detroit’s rotation from 2016-18 before injuries set in and threw his career into a tumultuous state. He underwent an ulnar nerve transposition procedure late in the 2017 season, had surgery to repair a meniscus tear in his knee in 2018 and missed all of the 2019 campaign following Tommy John surgery. Fulmer returned to make 10 starts in the shortened 2020 season, but he was shelled for an ERA just shy of 9.00.

In 2021, Detroit began transitioning Fulmer to a relief role, and he hit the ground running. He pitched exclusively in relief from May 5 onward that year and recorded a pristine 2.25 ERA with a 26% strikeout rate and 6.4% walk rate. By season’s end, he was closing games for A.J. Hinch.

That kicked off a nice three-year run of bullpen work between the Tigers, Twins (who acquired him at the trade deadline in 2022) and Cubs (who signed him as a free agent in the 2022-23 offseason). In that time, Fulmer pitched 190 1/3 innings with a 3.55 ERA, 19 saves, 45 holds, a 24.6% strikeout rate and a 9.4% walk rate. He wasn’t quite an elite reliever, but he was effective and seemed to have fully acclimated to high-leverage settings.

Now back with the Cubs, Fulmer can be deployed in a variety of ways. If Chicago is intrigued by the idea of continuing to stretch him out as a starter, he’d make plenty of sense as rotation depth. Ace Justin Steele’s season is over due to elbow surgery, and young righty Javier Assad has yet to pitch in 2025 due to an oblique injury. He’d been on track for an early May return but exited a rehab start yesterday due to what appeared to be renewed discomfort. Right now, the Cubs are going with Shota Imanaga, Jameson Taillon, Matthew Boyd, Ben Brown and Colin Rea in the rotation. Top prospect Cade Horton looms in Triple-A, though he’s walked 20.8% of his opponents through his first three starts and could probably use some more development time.

Alternatively, the Cubs could drop Fulmer right back into the bullpen role he’s held in recent years. Chicago relievers have the fourth-worst ERA in the majors (5.34), the third-worst strikeout rate (18.4%) and the eighth-highest walk rate (11.5%). Right-handers Ryan Brasier, Tyson Miller and Eli Morgan are all on the 15-day injured list, which has thinned out the depth in Craig Counsell’s bullpen.

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Chicago Cubs Transactions Michael Fulmer

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    Top Stories

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    Diamondbacks To Promote Jordan Lawlar

    Rockies Fire Bud Black

    Cubs Promote Cade Horton

    Rafael Devers Unwilling To Play First Base

    Pirates Fire Manager Derek Shelton

    Mariners Claim Leody Taveras

    Rangers Hire Bret Boone As Hitting Coach

    A.J. Minter To Undergo Season-Ending Lat Surgery

    Blue Jays Sign Spencer Turnbull

    Blue Jays Sign José Ureña

    Ross Stripling Retires

    Rangers Place Leody Taveras On Outright Waivers

    Triston Casas Likely To Miss Entire 2025 Season Due To Knee Surgery

    Orioles Recall Coby Mayo

    Recent

    Rich Rollins Passes Away

    The Marlins Could Face Another Rotation Dilemma

    Guardians Hire Corey Kluber As Special Assistant

    Brewers Sign Eddie Rosario To Minor League Deal

    White Sox Return Rule 5 Pick Gage Workman To Tigers

    Red Sox Place Tanner Houck On Injured List With Flexor Pronator Strain

    Ben Joyce Undergoes Season-Ending Shoulder Surgery

    Poll: Is Javier Baez Back?

    Astros Designate Tayler Scott For Assignment

    Tigers Select Akil Baddoo, Option Jace Jung

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