Pittsburgh Pirates News: Team Re-Claims Carson Fulmer Off Waivers (again)

The Pittsburgh Pirates have brought back a familiar face, re-claming right handed former top prospect Carson Fulmer off waviers yet again.

Back on August 24th, the Pittsburgh Pirates claimed former top prospect, and first round selection Carson Fulmer off of waviers from the Detroit Tigers, who claimed him off waivers from the Chicago White Sox. Just days later after being claimed by Pittsburgh, they designated Fulmer for assignment to make room for Joe Musgrove.

Fulmer was claimed by the Baltimore Orioles, but his stint didn’t last very long either as today, he was claimed off waivers again, this time by the Pittsburgh Pirates, marking the second time he will be in the Pittsburgh organization in less than a month. The Pirates had tweeted the news out on their Twitter earlier today:

Fulmer was once a highly touted Vanderbilt product in the Chicago White Sox farm system. Drafted as the 8th overall selection in the 2015 draft, Fulmer quickly made his presence known as he dominated batters in Rookie and High-A ball. He tossed 23 innings, allowed just 5 earned runs, 2 long balls, and struck out 27 batters.

With his draft status, and fantastic showing in the low-minors, Fulmer found himself high up on draft boards. Baseball Prospectus ranked him as the 70th best prospect entering 2016, and MLB Pipeline ranked him as high as 38. However he’s yet to live up to his top-10 pick status.

The following year, Fulmer pitched 103 innings between Double-A and Triple-A, but had a 4.63 ERA, 3.86 FIP, and 1.476 WHIP. Though he did keep up a high K-rate of 22.7%, and strong HR/9 of just .7, his walk rate had rocketed up to 12.2%. Control issues continued to plague him as he walked 7 batters in his first 11.2 major league innings in ’16.

In the next two seasons, Fulmer would keep up a weak walk rate posting a 11.4% mark in ’17 and 13.5% mark in ’18, both at Triple-A, but he saw his HR/9 and strikeout rates fall far from what they were in his first two seasons. He only had a strikeout percentage of 16.8% and 20.4% in the two seasons, and had an identical 1.3 HR/9 rate.

In 2019, Fulmer pitched exclusively out of the bullpen at Triple-A, but the results weren’t much better. He did have a 3.24 FIP because he saw his K% rise back to a career high mark of 33.6%, and his HR/9 dip below 1 to .5, but walks still plagued him with a 15% walk rate. This is shown in his xFIP of 4.46, much closer to the marks he had in the two years prior (4.71 in ’17, 4.62 in ’18).

Fulmer has pitched a total of 105 innings in the major leagues, and the results worse than what they were at Triple-A. He’s allowed an ERA of 6.34, and carries a 6.23 FIP, 1.6 WHIP, 6.01 xFIP, and 5.41 SIERA at the major league level. Home runs have been a massive issue as he surrendered 20, and so have walks with a 13.9% walk rate. Combined with a strikeout rate of just 18.9%, and it’s no surprise why he’s been DFA’d so many times.

Still, Fulmer is just 26-years-old. He also hasn’t been awful so far in 2020 with a 24% strikeout rate, and .9 HR/9 so far in 10.1 innings of work. His curveball, change-up and cutter are all considered above average pitches according to Fangraphs. His cutter is given a 60 grade because it sits in the top 91st percentile of spin, and his curve sits in the top 88th percentile of spin as well. Both have over 2600 RPM. Right now is a time to experiment with different players. See what works, what doesn’t. The last high spin rate guy they claimed off waivers was Chris Stratton, so maybe Carson Fulmer still has a chance to be a decent bullpen piece like Stratton is now.