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The Cubs’ signing of righthanded reliever Michael Fulmer made news more than a week ago and it was dutifully reported here, even though the team had not officially announced the signing.
Fulmer was spotted at camp over the weekend, even though the signing had not yet been made official:
New Cubs reliever Michael Fulmer throwing a bullpen today. The team has still not officially announced his 1-year, $4M contract. But he is very much here. pic.twitter.com/zFayyTU0ij
— Jordan Bastian (@MLBastian) February 19, 2023
Monday, the team officially announced Fulmer’s signing. The team doesn’t announce salary figures, but you can see the $4 million number above, which has been reported not only by Jordan Bastian, but several other beat reporters.
To make room on the 40-man roster for Fulmer, righthander Codi Heuer has been placed on the 60-day injured list. This means the earliest we’ll see Heuer return to action would be early June.
The 29-year-old Fulmer has a career 3.89 ERA (267 earned runs in 617 innings), two complete games, one shutout and 17 saves in 204 major league games (89 starts) in six seasons with the Tigers (2016-18, 2020-22) and Twins (2022). In 2016, he became the fifth player in Tigers history to be named the American League Rookie of the Year and was an AL All-Star in 2017. He missed the 2019 season with Tommy John surgery, but has been an effective reliever since then.
Fulmer should be a good addition to the Cubs’ bullpen, a veteran presence who had a very good year in 2022 split between Detroit and Minnesota.
There aren’t yet any non-beat-reporter photos of Fulmer in a Cubs uniform. Cubs team photo day is this Thursday, after which I will share with you some of the more interesting and/or humorous poses.