The Houston Astros should coax Michael Fulmer away from Detriot

The Houston Astros should turn their attention to the Detriot Tigers for starting pitching help as they could be looking to sell Michael Fulmer.

The Houston Astros need to figure out how they are going to fill up their rotation for the 2019 season. Two starters, Dallas Keuchel and Charlie Morton, have hit the open market and neither appear extremely likely to return. Lance McCullers Jr. was also lost for the year after undergoing Tommy John surgery.

Fortunately, the lone two holdovers from last year’s rotation, Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole, are pretty freakin’ good. Verlander and Cole were both top-five Cy Young finishers and some would say he probably should have won his second Cy Young. He should have won his second Cy Young.

The Astros do have some good internal options they could turn to fill out the rotation. Collin McHugh is coming off of his best season and could likely return to the rotation. There are also youngsters like Framber Valdez and Josh James who could take on a more prominent role. Forrest Whitley could also be an option this season as well.

However, the Houston Astros probably shouldn’t just look at the internal options to pitch alongside Cole and Verlander. After a season that saw the team get carried by an extremely dominant pitching staff, they need to go out and find options externally to ensure this staff can return to its elite levels from last year.

Adding another layer of urgency and need to the pitching staff, both Cole and Verlander are slated to reach free agency next year as well. Of course, one or both of these pitchers could sign an extension to remain with the team. In any way, it would behoove the team to add a pitcher who will be on the team for years to come.

In order to do so, the Houston Astros brass should turn their eyes north to Detriot. The Tigers are in full on rebuild mode and they only have a few valuable, controllable assets left. Former rookie of the year, Michael Fulmer, is one of them. His rookie year was tremendous, he sported a 3.06 ERA and a 1.12 WHIP. He was also particularly adept at limiting the long bomb.

However, Fulmer’s value has depreciated some since. He had a come back to earth season in 2017 though he was voted into his first All-Star game. Even so, he remained highly thought of as one of the bright, young pitchers of today. Then, 2018 happened. He completely blew up and looked nothing like he did two years prior during his Rookie of the Year campaign.

That being said, Fulmer still retains a ton of value as he won’t enter free agency until 2023 and still has the stuff that made him excellent during his rookie year. He still possesses a fastball that averages 95+ and still demonstrates a good slider and changeup.

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During 2016, Fulmer had Verlander to help him through his rookie season, to give him advice, to mentor him. Getting Fulmer on the Houston Astros would reunite him with Verlander and get him working with pitching wizard Brent Strom. There are, without a doubt, tweaks Fulmer could make to return to the form he saw at the beginning of his career and Houston could be the perfect place to do this.

The Tigers, of course, won’t give Fulmer up for pennies on the dime since he had one bad year. He’s still going to demand quite the haul since he has so many years left of control and is only a couple years removed from his rookie of the year.

A package that is built around top ten prospect J.B. Bukauskas could likely temp the Tigers into doing business with the Houston Astros once again. It’ll take some doing but the Astros should be able to acquire Fulmer to bolster their staff without trading the farm for him.

Fulmer’s career numbers are fairly average but he still has ace potential. He has a career 3.81 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, and has struck out over 350 batters for his career. The Houston Astros should definitely be interested in him and look to acquire him in a deal.