Twins Trade for Set-up Man Michael Fulmer

[John Bonnes]

Jon Heyman has reported the Minnesota Twins have acquired relief pitcher Michael Fulmer from the Detroit Tigers. Fulmer has served as primarily as the Tigers 8th inning set-up man, recording 39K in 39 IP, and posting a 3.20 ERA and 1.25 WHIP. In return, the Twins drafted Double-A RHP Sawyer Gipson-Long. 

The last two years, Michael Fulmer has owned a 3.06 ERA, and that coincides with him increasing the usage of his slider to the point where he is throwing it almost 65% of the time this year. That includes almost 72% of the time versus right-handers, who are posting just a 401 OPS(!) against him this year. 

Twins fans may remember the right-hander as less dominant, as he’s been knocked around by the Twins twice over the last month, including giving up two critical runs in last night’s Twins win. Overall, since July 1st, he’s been less effective, with a 6.55 ERA, though he’s also struck out 11 in 11 innings pitched, and not given up a home run.

But he’s also walked seven over that span, and control has been an issue with 20 walks in 39 innings this year. But that’s not terribly uncommon for a slider-first pitcher. Overall, his performance has not matched his relatively encouraging numbers: his Win Probability Added (WPA) is -0.22, though it was in positive territory before last night's Twins comeback. Since the Twins play the Tigers again tonight, it's possible that Fulmer will simply switch dugouts and be available for tonight's game. 

Fulmer is purely a rental for this season. He is due to become a free agent at the end of this year for the first time in his career.

The 29-year-old is far from a dominant reliever but he has proved to be a fairly reliable arm, and the slider-first philosophy meshes well with the organization and pitching staff. He should remain in fairly middle to low leverage situations since the Twins also acquired Orioles closer Jorge Lopez earlier today. As such, his job will be to provide manager Rocco Baldelli at least a little more depth to handle some of the middle-inning issues that have cost the team several games. 

To acquire Fulmer, the Twins traded right-handed pitching prospect Sawyer Gipson-Long. The 24-year-old was the Twins sixth-round pick in the 2019 draft out of Mercer. This season began in High-A Cedar Rapids where he went 5-2 with a 1.99 ERA. He had 52 strikeouts in 49 2/3 innings. He was recently promoted to Double-A Wichita and is 3-4 with a 7.17 ERA over 37 2/3 innings. He has 35 strikeouts. Overall this season, he has 19 walks and 87 strikeouts over 87 1/3 innings. He ranked #20 Twins Prospect by Twins Daily in July.  

With just minutes remaining before the trade deadline, will the Twins make any more moves? 

 

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[Yoke]

They’ve definitely upgraded their pitching today, which is nice to see.

[h2oface]

 . 

[Ski U Mah Gopher]

Fulmer moves to the less leverage 6th or 7th inning spot. Good move.

[MMMordabito]

Gipson-Long going back to Detroit.

 

Edit: The big club must not have any hyphens in their stitching inventory.

[Danchat]

Fulmer is only a rental, but a nice addition. I didn't think too highly of Gipson-Long, so I don't think losing him is a big deal. But we sure don't have a whole lot of pitching prospects left...

[Brandon]

Gibson Sawyer-Long was traded in this deal.

 

[roger]

Holy Cow, gonna need to get a program to know who is playing tonight.  That’s four new Twins, right?

[James]

2 minutes ago, roger said:

Holy Cow, gonna need to get a program to know who is playing tonight.  That’s four new Twins, right?

Three new Twins and one new Saint.

[Dman]

This addition should help as he keeps the ball in yard.  Not a great K rate but not bad either.  Fullmer should be someone who is dependable as a rental to help shore up the pen.  I have been a big Sawyer Gipson-Long backer and he has slowly moved up levels but given he was going to be Rule V eligible and not likely added to the 40 man with a decent chance to get picked this is a good way to use an asset.  

Twins must be banking on rebounds from SWR, Balazovich, Henriquez, Enlow and Canterino for next year as thing are thinned out for impact pitching with Petty, Hajjar and Povich being traded this year.  I guess they are banking on Prielipp moving fast and replacing one of the two lefties lost and let's hope they found diamonds in the rough down the line to fill the gaps at various levels from the 2022 draft.

Given all the controllable starters they have for next year in Gray, Maeda, Ryan and Mahle with Paddack back later in the year they should be in a good place for starting pitching for at least one more year.  Let's hope that pipeline starts pumping out young arms sooner rather later.

[dex8425]

12 minutes ago, Danchat said:

Fulmer is only a rental, but a nice addition. I didn't think too highly of Gipson-Long, so I don't think losing him is a big deal. But we sure don't have a whole lot of pitching prospects left...

But the good pitching prospects are still here. Balazovic, Varland, Simeon Woods Richardson, Winder, Canterino, Raya, Enlow.

[MMMordabito]

Lot's of fallout.

Cotton and A Sanchez DFA'd.

Sano to IL-60 (sad ending for Pelotero)

AK to IL-10

Cave called up.

[roger]

8 minutes ago, James said:

Three new Twins and one new Saint.

 

8 minutes ago, James said:

Three new Twins and one new Saint.

Expect Leon will be up with Hamilton in St Paul as soon as Leon gets here.  

[Brandon]

surprised if they DFA's Cotton.  He was one of our better relievers.  I would think Smith would be gone in this scenario.

[PDX Twin]

7 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

Cave called up.

Of all the news on the site today, surely this is the one that moves the needle for TD!

[Vanimal46]

Today has been a blast to be a Twins fan! 

[annismark]

13 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

Lot's of fallout.

Cotton and A Sanchez DFA'd.

Sano to IL-60 (sad ending for Pelotero)

AK to IL-10

Cave called up.

and think of the minor league transactions. 

 

[HerbieFan]

I like, borderline love, what they did today.  But today's MLB is just weird...you trade for a guy who gave up 2 runs to you last night and DFA a guy who retired 8 straight hitters and a guy who fanned 8 in 5 innings FOR you?

[HerbieFan]

So.....if Falvine had traded for Cotton and signed Pagan on a minor league deal, would Pagan have been DFA'd?  Hmmmmmmm.........

[Brandon]

40 minutes ago, MMMordabito said:

Lot's of fallout.

Cotton and A Sanchez DFA'd.

Sano to IL-60 (sad ending for Pelotero)

AK to IL-10

Cave called up.

is there a link for this?  I still don't get DFA Cotton when Smith has been so bad for a while now.

[rv78]

Not excited about the Fulmer trade. I realize they didn't give up much in Gipson-Long but Fulmer isn't a lights out kind of pitcher. He might be better than Duffey, Pagan or Cotton on any given night but he'll also be just as bad on other nights.

[rwilfong86]

I’m curious to see who serves what bullpen role going forward 

[Yoke]

37 minutes ago, annismark said:

and think of the minor league transactions. 

 

People are hustling to call “no dibs” on the minor league report writing the next couple days.

[puckstopper1]

Surprised Cotton was DFA'd.  I believe he was also earlier in the year.  Maybe with all the player movement today across MLB, the Twins are hoping he goes unclaimed.

[puckstopper1]

22 minutes ago, Brandon said:

is there a link for this?  I still don't get DFA Cotton when Smith has been so bad for a while now.

https://www.mlb.com/twins/roster/transactions

[puckstopper1]

FINALLY!!!!

Jake Cave has come back to Target Field!!!  ?

[whosafraidofluigirussolo]

I know every player is a pro and a competitor and able to focus on the present and all that, but it must be a little weird for a player to get traded to the team he was playing against yesterday, no?

[Rosterman]

The Twins will still have to make one more pitching move. So, probably Smith, as they need the 40-man spot.

Not as many minor league transactions as one may think. Maybe Martin advanced to St. Paul and an outfielder. Some minor pitcher movement.

Hey, the Twins traded away four of their top five 2021 draft pics. Let's see how fast some of the Class of 2022 are advanced!

Gonna be fun seeing what other players across the board are designated for assignment.

Hey, Brent Rooker is now a Royal!

[jmlease1]

Probably the move I like the least from the deadline deals. Fulmer just doesn't do much for me, and I liked Gipson-Long. It's not a terrible deal or anything, but I just don't know that Fulmer moves the needle much. It's...fine. I guess.

[2wins87]

Overall good trade deadline. I think they checked all the boxes for what they needed to acquire and all of the deals were pretty reasonable.

They did thin out the farm somewhat significantly, but didn't have to give up the very top guys.  I don't think it's likely we look back in a few years and see that they've lost a star, but probably they will have lost a couple of valuable role players. Nothing that can't be made up more good decisions and development.

If I wanted to criticize, I think it was pretty obvious from the last day of the offseason that the pitching was pretty iffy and they didn't seem willing to pay free agent prices for real upgrades. They gave up quite a bit today. They could definitely have been in a similar position now with more of their prospect capital or maybe have used the same capital to be in an even better position.