The Chicago White Sox have a lot of young up and coming talent. One guy who hasn’t lived up to the hype might be ready to contribute this year.
The Chicago White Sox have a lot of young talent. They have rebuilt their organization from the ground up thanks to trades, international free agents, and drafting. They started it all in 2016 and a lot of their young prospects are panning out. One who didn’t pan out like people thought he would is Carson Fulmer. He was a high draft pick for the White Sox but hasn’t lived up to his potential to this point in his career.
2020 might be his last chance to do something that gets him to stick in Major League Baseball. After being the eighth overall pick in the 2015 MLB Draft, he had a lot of hype for the White Sox. He was a great pitcher at Vanderbilt University but it just hasn’t translated to the White Sox. The ship might have sailed for him to be a starter for this team, but he has a chance to be amongst a solid list of bullpen pitchers. If he can do that, it would be a huge win for this version of the White Sox.
He got into some Spring Training action yesterday. It was a bit overlooked because Michael Kopech made his return from Tommy John surgery. Fulmer had 1.2 innings pitched and gave up no runs, no hits, and no walks while striking out three. If he can put up similar numbers to that in the regular season, he will be an awesome player for this team. The pressure is off him now as nobody expects much more than a middle reliever. That is okay at this point.
Fulmer and Kopech were the only two pitchers that made an appearance in the game that didn’t give up a single run. That is pretty good as Kopech has lots of hype around him this year while Fulmer essentially has none. It is fair to have cautious optimism with Fulmer going into 2020. If he is good, that is yet another solid arm in the bullpen. If he is not, they can keep him in the minors in favor of better pitchers. He deserves one final shot to show what he can do this year.