Following a promising weekend sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers, the Pittsburgh Pirates added some more pitching depth to their arsenal.
The team announced on Monday that they claimed pitcher Carson Fulmer off waivers from the Detroit Tigers. In a corresponding move, outfielder Guillermo Heredia was designated for assignment.
Heredia, 29, had not appeared in a game for the Pirates since August 4. In 16 at-bats with the Pirates, Heredia batted .188 with two runs batted in. He was signed by the Pirates in January following a 2019 campaign spent with the Tampa Bay Rays.
Fulmer, 26, was selected in the first round of the 2015 MLB Draft (eighth overall) by the Chicago White Sox. He made his MLB debut in July of 2016.
Across four seasons with the White Sox, Fulmer posted ugly ERAs of 8.49 (11.2 IP) in 2016, 3.86 (23.1 IP) in 2017, 8.07 (32.1 IP) in 2018 and 6.26 (27.1 IP) in 2019. Although he can be used as a starter, 36 of Fulmer's 51 career appearances have come out of the bullpen.
Fulmer was designated for assignment by the White Sox on July 23 and was claimed by the Tigers on July 25. In 6.2 innings pitched with the Tigers, Fulmer posted a 6.75 earned run average with seven strikeouts. He was DFAd by Detroit on August 20.
Fulmer, along with current Pirates outfielder Bryan Reynolds and current Pirates catching prospect Jason Delay, were members of the 2014 Vanderbilt Commodores team that won the College World Series.
In 2015, Fulmer posted a spectacular season, notching a 14-2 record with a 1.83 ERA and 167 strikeouts in 127.2 innings pitched. In his first season in the minor leagues, Fulmer was a 2016 representative of the White Sox at the SiriusXM MLB All-Star Futures Game at Petco Park in San Diego, pitching for the AA-affiliated Birmingham Barons at the time.
Fulmer is a native of Lakeland, Florida, the same town that produced former Pirates outfielder Andrew McCutchen. In 2018, McCutchen was traded to the San Francisco Giants in exchange for Bryan Reynolds.
The Pirates will be in action on Tuesday, when they travel to Guaranteed Rate Field for the first of a brief two-game set with Fulmer's former team, the Chicago White Sox.
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