The Red Sox have agreed to a minor league contract with veteran right-hander Michael Fulmer, per the team’s transaction log at MLB.com. Fulmer isn’t expected to pitch in 2024 after undergoing a UCL revision in his right elbow back in October. As such, it’s a two-year minor league pact, per Chris Cotillo of MassLive.com. Presumably, that’ll come with a 2025 spring training invite. The Red Sox didn’t formally announce Fulmer’s deal, but they did make their previously known minor league pact with Dalton Guthrie official, adding that he’s been invited to big league camp this spring. The Sox also announced minor league deals with non-roster invites to camp for infielder Joe Dunand and righty Melvin Adon.
Of the names in question, Fulmer is the most recognizable. Now 30 years old (31 in March), Fulmer was the 2016 AL Rookie of the Year with the Tigers when he pitched 159 innings of 3.06 ERA ball out of the Detroit rotation. A solid followup season in 2017 looked to have entrenched Fulmer on the starting staff in Detroit, but injuries have largely derailed that promising start to his big league tenure.
Since 2018, Fulmer has undergone ulnar nerve transposition surgery, meniscus surgery in his right knee, Tommy John surgery and now a revision of that originally ligament repair in his pitching elbow. That doesn’t include oblique, shoulder and back strains that have also sent him to the injured list for various stints over the past six years. Since pitching 323 2/3 innings of 3.45 ERA ball over his first two MLB seasons combined, Fulmer has pitched a total of just 350 1/3 MLB frames in the past six seasons.
Some of that is due to a 2021 move to the bullpen. Fulmer looked to have found a second act in his career upon making that shift. He saved 14 games for the ’21 Tigers and from ’21-’23 pitched 190 1/3 frames of 3.55 ERA ball between the Tigers, Twins and Cubs. This latest procedure and another year lost to arm troubles again clouds his long-term outlook, although he’ll be just 32 years of age in 2025, so there’s still plenty of time for Fulmer to have a nice long run as a reliever if his arm can hold up. By virtue of this minimal-risk arrangement, the Red Sox will get to take the first look at his chances of doing so.
Turning to the 28-year-old Dunand, he made a brief MLB debut with the Marlins in 2022 (three games) but is best known as the nephew of Alex Rodriguez. Dunand went 3-for-10 with a homer and a double in his brief look with the Fish but has an uneven track record in Triple-A. The former second-round pick struggled greatly with the Marlins’ Triple-A club in 2021-22 before making some notable strides with the Braves organization in 2023. Dunand hit .268/.362/.481 (111 wRC+) with 17 homers in 403 Triple-A plate appearances last season, though his prior Triple-A struggles are reflected in a career .233/.325/.407 output at that level.
Dunand has played both positions on the left side of the infield extensively, though he’s appeared slightly more often at third base (1962 innings) than at shortstop (1810 innings). He’s also logged 506 innings at first base and made brief cameos in left field and at second base. He’s a right-handed bat who’ll give the Sox some depth at a variety of positions.
Adon, 29, has spent his entire professional career in the Giants organization prior to this signing. He ranked 17th or better among San Francisco prospects each year from 2017-19, per Baseball America, but has seen his stock fade due to persistent command troubles and recent injury woes (shoulder surgery, most notably).
Adon’s fastball has previously sat in the upper 90s and climbed as high as 102 mph, and scouting reports have touted a plus slider for him as well. Despite two plus offerings, he’s shown bottom-of-the-scale command in the upper minors, walking 13% of his Double-A opponents and more than 17% of his Triple-A opponents. He’s also plunked 25 hitters and thrown a whopping 67 wild pitches in just 457 professional innings. Adon has above-average strikeout rates in Double-A and Triple-A, but not to the extent one might expect based on the quality of his raw pitches.
Surprised he settled for a minors deal. I feel there are other teams that could have given him a big league contract.
“Surprised he settled”…I’ve been watching MLB for 52+ years and this is the first time I’ve heard of a “2 year” minor league deal. I thought minor league deals were always 1 year.
It’ll take him until 2025, but I think Breslow’s plan is to have a 40 man roster entirely composed of players on minors deals. Why can’t they develop in the big leagues?? Savings!!!
Its not uncommon for players, usually pitchers coming off of elbow surgeries to do this, the Rays signed Garrett Acton to a two-year minor league deal back in December. It allows the player the chance to rehab with a professional organization and draw some kind of salary. This is already Fulmer’s second major elbow surgery since 2019 and it’s not too likely many teams were interested in guaranteeing him anything
Red Sox Dan Altavilla 2 years ago signed a two year minor league deal.
What confuses me is minor league deals are usually not paid or guaranteed UNTIL the player shows enough health to make the team?..So, he’s unpaid the 1st year when not healthy?
Redsox Nation is still in BOTCOTT Mode is all this article says…
2 Aces from Free Agency and Montgomery this year and we’ll spend our time and money again. Until then enjoy filming your team on Netflix logging a 3rd year running last place finish lol…should get as many views as the team will on streaming MLB Ticket or on NESN, or at Fenway lol…It must be embarrassing for you to call yourself a professional baseball team.
Lifelong Sox fan and I think they’ll maybe win 81 games this year if everything breaks right. Maybe. Their division is brutal and ownership is playing for the future,
I’m trying to figure out the advantage of a 2-year deal for Fulmer. Is there money involved that is not yet disclosed? I would think there has to be other teams that might put up $1M betting on good health.
Joe, it could be he believes that he’s got an easier path to MLB outings given the state of boston’s rotation. Granted, it’s a year away, but, they haven’t inspired confidence thus far in a free agentncycle that is relatively richer in pitching than next offseason is widely expected to be.
Nobody is signing a player to a 1 yr deal who will never play for it. Player get free trainers and rehab facilities for a year, and, team gets one season to try him out.
OIC2021
Add more subscribers?
Man, 2025 will be something for the Sox. Netflix docuseries and now Michael Fulmer. Can we just skip ahead a year?
Hey John – Do you still where that fielding helmet in retirement?
Every day and all night in bed. My wife’s got the jimmy arms like you wouldn’t believe.
Wow, it really is you Mr Olerud.
It’s smart you guys blur your faces on your only fans page, but I recommend removing the helmet when filming.
At what point do you pull the plug?
When they stop offering a contract.
Interesting signing
Full Throttle bitches.. look out luxury tax!
Sad.
He is awesome.
Red Sox spirit animal is the cricket apparently.
Good luck to Michael the Plumber! He’s a nice guy and a hard worker, but some guys are just plagued by the injury bug. I hope his health settles down and he can resume being a productive pitcher a la Rich Hill.
If he stays healthy, Fulmer will be helpful. Sox bullpen getting deep. They’re gonna need em.
Still a top 10 bullpen and a lineup that has Casas, Devers, O’Neill, with an expected bounce back from Story can get you 80-85 wins. No need for all the doom and gloom! Spring training hasn’t even started.
Several big FAs still out there too. Way too early to make a call on the team.
Haters will consider the “dont expect the payroll to go up” as an Absolute Law, though. Time will tell if thats a bluff or not.
What Sam Kennedy said was the team’s payroll for this season will “probably be lower” than it was in 2023.
“probably be lower” or “dont expect the payroll to go up”
I was para-phrasing. Did you have a point, or OCD kicking in?
We had a 81W Py W/L last year. Without change. we would be 81-81. I’d say we took a very minor step back so far, but there is still time.
But if we want to get back to 85+, we need to add at least one SP.
Its logic to believe that if youre dealing with Boras, you’d say “dont expect the payroll to go up”, whether its True or Not. Do you really want to say publicly, “we have to sign one of these two pitchers that are still out there”. The price would go up as soon as the words hit the media.
Red Sox are either being really cheap or being really coy. But, by the comments here, most every Red Sox fan thinks its definitely the cheap version. Time will tell.
I have no problem waiting. DD signed JD on 2/26. Guys like Monty and Clevinger are a lot less straightforward, but if you think your number is good, then you have to wait it out.
If Andrew Bailey can work his magic with Bello, Giolito and the remaining starters, this could be an interesting team that could potentially secure a wild card playoff birth. Their bullpen is rock solid. A whole lot will have to go right of course: Story coming back to form at the plate, O’Neill to stay healthy for most of the season and Grissom proving that he can hit for a full season in the majors. The rest of the offensive lineup is quite solid with the exception of catcher. I think their floor is 75 wins, but with some improvement from the starters, good health from the majority of the team and one breakout season from a younger player, this could be an 85-89 win team. I still think they end up adding one more starter and one more bat to improve their chances too.
Hope springs eternal!
Dorothy = Suggesting a FLOOR of 75 wins is very aggressive.
My idea of a floor is the worst you can do which in the 2024 current Red Sox roster’s case is 50. Why 50? Think about what COULD GO WRONG which is how you calculate a floor.
1 – Devers could have a major injury which has yet to happen in his career so far and when you consider his swing, his ego and his lack of grace he’ is a knee injury, a hamate injury or an oblique injury waiting to happen.
2 – Cora loses clubhouse support
3 – The pitchers don’t improve with Breslow
4 – The young players regress as if they are in a sophomore slump
5 – Kenley and/or Martin get hurt
The team is so bad to begin with that their floor is the worst record in baseball. Their upside as of today is 81 wins.
O’Neill being healthy is not the same as O’Neill being good. Same for Giolito. They both need to have bounce back years to 3 or 4 years ago for Boston to get to 81 wins.
The team has the potential to be 95 win team if they fix the 5 critical areas and 2 cost no money.
1 – Fire Cora
2 – Move Devers to DH and trade Yoshida
3 – Add two Starting Pitchers for the SP1 and SP2 spots
4 – Add an offensive and defensive all-star 3B
5 – Add two lefty late inning relievers
The money is there. The will to fix things is missing. Why surgically repair a leg when you can put a bandage on it and say you tried.
A bullpen is useless if your starters can’t get you more than four or five innings without giving up a bunch of runs.
Bloom 2.0. Chaim signed Dan Altavilla to a two year deal with an arm issue hoping to benefit from him in year two. Dude never even remotely saw the mound past High A ball I think. Like, sure, do this but how likely is this to be impactful? Probably fairly slim chance.
I suppose at least Fulmer is a former all star while Altavilla was (is?) nothing more than an AAAA pitcher.
Didn’t realize he had a procedure done. Always liked him, hopefully he gets back to pitching well.
The glass is half Fulmer.
Very good signing by Red Sox. His down year, may have been caused, by a Manager not good at making BP decisions.
2 many commas
Ok like commas
Jiggs – And Cora is better? hahahahahahahahaha
Honestly don’t know Cora but Ross was awful.
Jiggs – Cora has many, many limitations as a manager but one of his biggest limitations is choosing when to pull a pitcher and who to bring in to keep the runs from scoring.
Think of Cora as a guy who aspires to be as good Don Zimmer when he managed the Cubs and Mitch Williams!!!hahaha Yes, he’s that bad!!!
How many times have you posted about the ads?
Sox keep winning the offseason
I just heard Joe Pesci in My Cousin Vinny. “You did it Breslow. The case cracker!!!! We are going to the World Series now!!!’
Note to aspiring sons and daughters “…with vision, hard work, integrity and ambition, someday, maybe… there will be a ‘minor league’ contract out there with your name on it.”
Dare to dream!
I know or would be substantially more money, but of your going for a 2 year rehab deal, why not Brandon Woodruff?
Ketch – GREAT POINT!!!! I have been thinking the same thing.
As you said, substantially more money.
Joe – The point is not the money it’s the rehab. If you spend on a great pitcher who will be out a year versus little on a bad pitcher who will be out a year, which sounds like a better deal?
Also, we talk about 26 man rosters all the time and the slots on that roster. In the pitching area there are
7 – SP if you count long relief like Pivetta
2 – Righty late relievers
2 – Lefty late relievers
1 = Closer
1 – Whitlock to deal with stress innings created by the starter
That’s 13. If Fulmer is one of the late inning right handed reliever who goes to AAA – Winckowski or Martin? I’m guessing your answer is Winckowski. So is Fulmer good enough to displace Winckowski or is it a waste of money when it could have been applied to Woodruff.
Brandon Woodruff is a $25MM a year SP who is out in 2024 but will be back for all of 2025. I say pay him $110MM for 5 years. $10MM in 2024 to not play, that’s 7 less than we are paying Sale to not play, then $25MM a year for four years after that. He will be 35 when the contract ends. He’s a righty when we could use a lefty but he’s a top of the rotation player at less than a top of the rotation price. I’ll take him over Giolito and O’Neill in a heart beat. It would only be $5MM per year more than Giolito and you’d be getting a SP1 vs a SP3 or SP4 in Giolito.
Fulmer cost $4MM last year. If you get him for nothing and he can backfill Martin when you trade him, then the Fulmer deal makes sense along with a Woodruff deal.
Fulmer won’t be displacing anyone to AAA., he’s out for all of ’24, he will be in the mix for 2025 after Martin and Jansen are gone. At that point the bullpen is probably looking something like this, just based on internal options and not counting on any outside additions:
SP 1-5: Giolito, Bello, Crawford, Houck, Criswell
long reliever/spot starter – whoever wins the battle in ’24 between Bryan Mata (out of options) and Justin Slaten (Rule 5 pick)
“Relief Ace” / potentially multi-IP high leverage guy – Whitlock
Traditional Closer – Winckowski
Righty set up guys – Kelly, Schreiber, Fulmer
Lefty set up guys – Bernadino
Which is 12. So without any outside signings if they’re going to carry 13 pitchers, that’s probably what the bones of it would look like, with room to go out and either 1. promote somebody who might be “just a guy” but impresses in the minors/ST, 2. get an elite lefty (wish they were actually doing something resembling full throttle this winter, I would’ve loved to get Hader) so they have more than one, 3. go get a proven closer if you don’t have faith in Winck, or 4. both 2 and 3. while demoting or cutting somebody.
And don’t even get me started on how gross that rotation looks. I’m fully with you that I’d just go sign Woodruff now on a more back loaded deal, but for someone that good there is probably more money in it for him to do the one year prove it route and then get paid after.
Diminishing returns–thy name is Red Sox.
So let me get this straight. They fired Chaim Bloom just to replace him with a guy whose plan is to operate exactly like Chaim Bloom? This is full throttle?
Wait, did you mean Chaim Breslow?
04: It looks like it, but according to Werner, Breslow assured ownership the team would be competitive.
All – So did Bloom!!! Not the word I’d use for the last four years!!
There is a place deep inside of me that still thinks there is a possible long shot thing that will happen as we start Spring Training and one day Breslow will fire Cora and move Devers to DH pick up two top flight SPs and a 3B and this team will do well in 2024 but as each day passes that place inside me vanishes a little bit more.
And that assurance was based on, what? Good vibes? They haven’t made a single move to suggest this team has a ceiling higher than 5th place in the AL East.
04: Not sure, but it appears ownership believes Breslow will field a competitive team. It also looks like ownership wants to develop players more than sign free agents. This is where I saw the quote:
masslive.com/redsox/2024/01/red-soxs-tom-werner-on…
Some quotes from Werner:
“In the end, we don’t have a line in terms of our payroll that we look at as much as trusting that Craig (Breslow) is going to deliver on his assurance that we’re going to be competitive.”
“I guess the message is that we are confident that we’re going to field a competitive team and that we’re going to let Craig do what he does best, which is to build exactly that.”
“But on the other hand, what’s important is our record at the end of the season. Whoever spends the most amount of money in free agency doesn’t necessarily hoist the World Series trophy at the end of the year.”
Full throttle was just a dumb comment.
Well they just watched this pitching staff ride them to back to back non-competitive seasons and haven’t made any obvious upgrades to it, so again what does it all boil down to? Breslow saying “trust me bro”? Bet Bloom feels pretty stupid he didn’t think to say that.
And I’m sorry, is prioritizing player development over outside acquisitions not what we have been doing the past 4 years? Outside of the miserable return he got for Mookie Betts, we have no idea if his player development scheme was working or not because none of his guys are ready for the show yet. His closest prospects are all still a year or two away or more and we’ve already decided his plan wasn’t working? And then we hire a guy who, so far, has proceeded to implement more or less the exact same strategy?
Following this organization makes me feel like I’m taking crazy pills.
Full throttle for 2025
Why sign Fulmer now if he can’t pitch in 2024? I don’t think he will be chased after next year with his injury history… we’re paying him to be injured? Probably something I’m missing here but I don’t get why it’s a two year deal if he can’t pitch in 2024.
Pretty much the same deal they gave Paxton. It’s basically, we’ll pay you something to hang out and rehab for the first year if you give us a discount on the second year. The player likes it because getting paid (and having access to team doctors) for two years is better than getting paid for one year, the team likes it because they feel like they are banking on the player providing quality reinforcements at a point in the future at a discount from what the player might be worth when healthy, meanwhile we fans sit here continuing to wonder how they could possibly view this pitching staff as just being a new pitching coach away from being competitive.
So that he will be under contract when he is able to pitch in the 2nd year. They get him at a value price and he has income while in recovery.
stymeedone – Martin is gone by 2025 and he seems like a logical replacement and as you mentioned at a very low price. This move makes more sense than any other this off season. It appears to address future needs in an insightful way. We just need Fulmer to bounce back to good Fulmer.
Yep – provided Fulmer still has something left to offer in 2025 I have nothing against this at all. Like you said it is a creative way to give us options for known future needs. What I hate is that this is their third biggest move of the winter after we were promised “full throttle”
Yall keep laughing. Just wait until we are crowned AAA champs
Full Throttle Baby!!! Chaim Bloom 2.0 with Spendlow Breslow, high upside guys on the cheap. This is going to be some year with this team. Seventy five wins ?