ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Michael Fulmer entered spring training as the Detroit Tigers’ top young arm, ranked first overall in the organization and rated among the best prospects in all of baseball. As highly as the former first-round draft pick was touted, however, the Tigers tempered their excitement with a pragmatic approach. The team figured he’d likely spend most or all of this season at Triple-A Toledo.
How quickly things change.
When Fulmer was first called up at the end of April, he was summoned because of a need. With starting pitcher Shane Greene requiring a stint on the disabled list for a blistered middle finger, the Tigers needed a fresh arm to fill the vacancy.
But what began as a temporary stay transformed into something else entirely. He has pitched so well that his place in the rotation is no longer a question. A reporter asked, cheekily, whether Fulmer would be making his next start in five days.
Manager Brad Ausmus simply stared and chuckled.
Carving out a spot in the rotation and forcing the club’s hand initially seemed like an uphill battle for the 23-year-old flamethrower. Now, a rotation without him is hard to fathom. Following ace Justin Verlander and workhorse Jordan Zimmermann, Fulmer has earned his place as the Tigers’ No. 3 starter, at least if he continues to pitch like he did in Wednesday’s 3-0 win over the Los Angeles Angels.
“I don’t know if every single start they’re going to pitch great, but if they can pitch something like they have in recent starts, it certainly looks like a stronger rotation when you have those three guys,” Ausmus said.
Fulmer, who improved to 5-1 on the season, pitched 7 2/3 scoreless innings on Wednesday, helping his club snap a four-game losing streak. He had a no-hit bid going until a two-out single by C.J. Cron broke that up in the seventh. He has an active scoreless streak of 16 1/3 innings, and he has allowed one run or fewer in three straight starts, with a 3-0 record, a 0.40 ERA, nine hits, four walks and 22 strikeouts during that span.
It has been a stretch so impressive, considering his relative inexperience, that Fulmer has elicited comparisons to one of his childhood idols.
“I don’t want to put this type of heat on Fulmer, because he’s not there yet, but I kind of was thinking of [Roy] Oswalt’s first year up in the big leagues,” Ausmus said. “In the mentality. He’s not intimidated by who’s stepping in the batter’s box. The environment doesn’t seem to bother him.”
That much was clear when Albert Pujols stepped into the batter’s box as a pinch hitter (his first time doing so as an Angel) and the potential tying run with a man on in the eighth inning. What was Fulmer thinking when Pujols came up to the plate?
“My mindset was [catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia] came out and said, 'Let’s go first-pitch fastball down and away,' so that’s what I was ... focused on,” Fulmer said.
Pujols swung at the first one, so they went back to it, generating another swing-and-miss on a 96 mph heater. With an 0-2 count, Fulmer struck out Pujols with an 89 mph slider.
Fulmer’s rapid ascension is perhaps representative of the sort of promising young talent the Tigers have coming up through the system. In a way, it was fitting that on the same day that the team announced that 32-year-old starter Anibal Sanchez was headed to the bullpen after a rash of poor starts that Fulmer would further his case to become a pillar of this team’s future.
Already this Tigers rotation looks different than how it was envisioned heading into the year. Fulmer arrived long before anyone expected. Sanchez’s disappointing start now leaves him on the outside looking in, and the Tigers may see a continued infusion of youth in the coming months.
Matt Boyd, recalled with Zimmermann working his way back from a groin injury, performed well in his first start last weekend in Oakland. He’ll take the mound on Thursday when the Tigers host the New York Yankees for a makeup game at Comerica Park. Greene is on the mend and nearing a return after making his third rehab start in Triple-A recently, though the Tigers may opt to use him in the bullpen — possibly in a setup role — when he rejoins the team. And then there is young lefty Daniel Norris knocking on the door. The 23-year-old prospect recorded a season-high nine strikeouts in his start for Toledo on Wednesday. He is only a phone call away if the Tigers need him.
The rotation has stumbled through stretches of the 2016 season and shifted shape on account of both injuries and performance. A month from now, it could be an even sharper contrast, should the team call upon its young arms.
“It’s a bright future, for sure,” said Saltalamacchia, who also caught Boyd’s first start of the season. “I think they’ve got the right veteran guys around them. That’s key to them -- you can learn off those guys. A guy like Verlander, who studies the game, who’s looking at numbers, looking at swings, reading swings.”
So much of a 162-game season is unpredictable, as the Tigers have already seen just a few games past the quarter mark. But what the Tigers have at their disposal this season, as opposed to last year, is an abundance of options, whether they elect to use them or not.
“We’ve said since spring training started, we feel like we have more depth from the starting pitching perspective, so that helps,” Ausmus said. “It’s part of the reason we can make a move like Sanchez to the bullpen and feel like we have someone that can step in. That being said, we’d rather have Sanchez at full speed and pitching well, but we feel like we have some depth.”
