One day before acquiring Garrett Crochet to headline his rotation, Red Sox chief baseball officer Craig Breslow provided an interesting revelation about an under-the-radar member of the organization who could factor into the pitching mix in 2025.
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Speaking at the Winter Meetings in Dallas on Tuesday, Breslow noted that right-handed pitcher Michael Fulmer, who is nearing the end of his recovery from the UCL revision surgery he had on his elbow last October, could be used as a starter next season. That came as a minor surprise because Fulmer, the 2016 American League Rookie of the year and an All-Star in 2017, has worked almost exclusively worked in relief since 2021. The plan, however, is to see what he can provide as a length option during spring training.
Fulmer broke into the majors as a starter and made 85 starts from 2016 to 2020. From 2021 to 2023, he made five starts and 172 relief appearances for Detroit, Minnesota and the Cubs.
“He’s a guy we actually signed with an eye on — once he’s completely healthy — building him out, whether that’s as a starting pitcher or someone who can handle bulk, leverage innings,” Breslow said. “It’s something we still feel confident in. He’s making quite a bit of progress throwing pain-free and having a fairly normal offseason at this point. We’re optimistic both about his recovery and the contributions he can make just given what we saw when he was pitching as a reliever prior to him getting hurt.”
Fulmer, who turns 32 during spring training, went under the knife last fall after logging a 4.42 ERA, 4.15 FIP and 10/3 K/9 rate in 57 innings out of the Cubs bullpen in 2023. In January, the Red Sox signed him to a two-year, minor league contract that would allow him to spend all of 2024 rehabbing and potentially return in 2025. He spent time at the team’s complex in Fort Myers and is now at a point where he’s ramping up normally.
“There’s certainly a pretty clear path to him being ready for Opening Day,” Breslow said. “But at the same time, that doesn’t mean that if he’s not, that means there was some significant setback we can point to. Recovery is kind of a long and winding road.”
Fulmer’s contract will pay him $1.5 million if he’s on the roster next season and he can earn an additional $500,000 via bonuses. Interestingly, he was available to every other team earlier this week. Fulmer is not on the 40-man roster and is old enough to be Rule 5-eligible, so any club could have plucked him in Wednesday’s draft and given him a chance to stick on another roster early next year. The Red Sox only protected two players (prospects Hunter Dobbins and Jhostynxon Garcia) before last month’s deadline and left Fulmer at risk of being taken. While there were rumors early Wednesday that other teams were interested, Fulmer went undrafted and remains with the Red Sox.
“We evaluate each of those decisions on a case-by-case basis and we look at the combination of the ability to impact our team, probability of selection and health,” Breslow said before the Rule 5 draft. “Our desired outcome is that Fulmer is pitching for the Boston Red Sox and helping him win games. We also understand we can only protect so many guys and if there’s a team that wants to take a chance, at this point, there’s not a whole lot we can do.”
The new-look Red Sox rotation projects to have Crochet headlining a group that will, barring further additions, include returnees Tanner Houck, Kutter Crawford, Brayan Bello and Lucas Giolito. Behind that main five is a group of depth options that includes Cooper Criswell, Richard Fitts, Quinn Priester, Fulmer and perhaps Dobbins later in the season.
Breslow, who worked in the Cubs’ front office during Fulmer’s time there, is excited for the veteran’s potential.
“Michael and I have a relationship going back to our time in Chicago,” Breslow said. “Any conversation about Michael starts with just the quality of teammate and human that he is. I think we’ve seen that in what has been a really promising path to recovery just knowing he’s committed to the work required and incredibly diligent.”
