Michael Fulmer is on the open market again. On Tuesday, the 33-year-old right-hander cleared waivers, rejected an outright assignment to the minors, and elected free agency after the Los Angeles Angels designated him for assignment last weekend — the latest chapter in a nine-year career that has gone from AL Rookie of the Year to one of the most intriguing low-risk bullpen additions available before the stretch run. For any contender shopping for relief help without paying prospect capital, Fulmer is suddenly the cheapest experienced arm on the board.
The timeline of a sudden free agency
The Angels moved Fulmer off the roster on Aug. 23 as the corresponding move to activate left-hander Yusei Kikuchi from the 60-day injured list. Kikuchi hadn't pitched since April 29, when left shoulder inflammation knocked him out after two innings against the White Sox, and the Halos needed the roster spot. The 40-man was full, so the veteran righty was the odd man out.
Fulmer's entire Angels stint lasted eleven days. He signed a minor league deal on Aug. 11, saw his contract selected from Triple-A on Aug. 15, and made three relief appearances — 3⅔ scoreless innings, including a clean frame the night before the designation. He didn't lose his job to ineffectiveness; he lost it to a numbers crunch. Because Fulmer has more than five years of service time and has been outrighted before in his career, he had the right to reject a minor league assignment, keep his guaranteed money, and walk. On Aug. 25, that's exactly what he did.
From Rookie of the Year to journeyman
It's easy to forget how high Fulmer's ceiling once was. The Detroit Tigers acquired him from the Mets in the 2015 Yoenis Céspedes deal before he ever threw a big-league pitch, and in 2016 he delivered one of the best rookie pitching seasons in recent memory: AL Rookie of the Year honors, the first Tigers pitcher to win the award since Justin Verlander in 2006. A year later he was an All-Star, fronting a Detroit rotation that still mattered in the AL Central.
Over his six seasons in Detroit (2016-22), Fulmer made 89 starts with a 3.90 ERA, 488 strikeouts and more than 590 innings. But the injuries started stacking up. Tommy John surgery in 2019 cost him most of two seasons, and he hasn't thrown 100 innings in a year since 2018. The Tigers flipped him to Minnesota at the 2022 trade deadline, and since then he's been a rental-era journeyman: Twins, Cubs, a brief Red Sox cameo in 2025 that lasted exactly one appearance before Boston designated him, and now the Angels.
The arm, though, has shown life along the way. Fulmer rebounded to win the AL Comeback Player of the Year award in 2021, and his brief 2026 sample with the Angels — three outings, zero runs — suggests the stuff still plays in short bursts. He's not the power sinker artist of 2016. He's a strike-throwing, ground-ball veteran who can give a contender a dependable middle-inning bridge without a single player traded away to get him.
Why he's worth a look
This is the time of year when teams pay a premium for exactly what Fulmer now costs nothing. The waiver period is over, the trade deadline is in the rearview mirror, and the August free-agent market is a thin, bargain-bin place. A veteran with 89 career starts, an All-Star resume and a scoreless week of work in the big leagues is not the kind of arm that usually just floats to the open market in the final weeks of August.
Fulmer's value is simple: he throws strikes, he keeps the ball on the ground, and he has done it in every kind of leverage situation the game offers. He has closed games, started them, pitched the middle innings and thrown high-leverage innings in a pennant race. For a bullpen running on fumes in September — and virtually every contender's bullpen is — that kind of experience is worth more than raw stuff.
Where could he land? A reunion with the Angels is possible; the club liked him enough to keep him on the 40-man for a week and a half. But the more logical fits are contenders with overworked relief corps that want a known quantity at the league minimum. Teams in that position rarely announce interest — they just quietly sign the guy and let the bullpen coach work. Don't be surprised if Fulmer is on a playoff roster by the time September rolls over.
The betting angle
Late-season bullpen additions are one of the most underrated factors in futures markets. Books spend all summer pricing rotations and lineups, but relief depth is harder to model — and a quiet veteran addition that stabilizes the seventh and eighth innings moves win totals and playoff odds in ways the market is slow to catch up on.
If you're shopping futures right now, watch which contender signs Fulmer in the next 48 hours. The teams that grab veteran relief help this time of year are usually the ones front offices believe are one arm away, and that conviction is a signal. It's also a reminder that August free agency, for all its jokes, still produces the occasional difference-maker. A former Rookie of the Year with something left in the tank, available for nothing, in the middle of a pennant race — that's the kind of story baseball writes every fall.
Michael Fulmer is a free agent. He's 33, he's healthy, and he just proved he can still get big-league outs. Some contender is about to get a bargain.
Marcus Bennett
Marcus Bennett breaks down games with a focus on style, pace, momentum, and matchup factors that help readers better understand the betting board.