Michael Fulmer is getting another chance to chase a big league return. Just days after the San Francisco Giants cut him loose from their minor league system, the veteran right-hander agreed to a new minor-league contract with the Los Angeles Angels on Tuesday and was assigned to Triple-A Salt Lake.
The 33-year-old has not appeared in a major league game this season, but his performance in Sacramento this year made the release somewhat surprising.
Over 42 1/3 innings, he posted a sub-3.00 ERA while striking out 29 percent of the hitters he faced.
A walk rate of 11.7 percent kept him from forcing the Giants’ hand for a call-up, yet the combination of strikeouts and run prevention was strong enough to draw interest elsewhere.
With more than 40 games remaining on the Angels’ schedule and the club currently in the thick of a series against the Texas Rangers, Fulmer could find himself needed for length or middle-inning work before the year is out.
This latest stop continues a career that once carried far higher expectations.
Fulmer burst onto the scene with the Detroit Tigers, capturing American League Rookie of the Year honors in 2016 and emerging as a legitimate Cy Young candidate the following season.
In those early years he routinely logged more than 100 innings and looked every bit the front-line starter. Injuries and inconsistency later slowed his progress, limiting him to fewer than 10 starts in any season after 2018.
He has since bounced from the Tigers to the Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox, compiling a career 3.95 ERA across 679 2/3 innings with 578 strikeouts and an above-average ERA+ of 110.
His most recent major league action came in 2025, when he tossed just 5 2/3 innings between the Cubs and a brief Red Sox stint. He missed all of 2024 while recovering from injury.
Now, after a solid Triple-A campaign that failed to earn him a look in San Francisco, Fulmer will try to rebuild momentum in the Angels’ system.
Whether the opportunity leads to September innings or simply another professional chapter remains to be seen, but the former standout still possesses the stuff that once made him one of the game’s more promising young arms.
