Detroit Tigers right-hander Michael Fulmer has decided to proceed with Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow after being diagnosed with a torn ulnar collateral ligament by a third surgeon.
“If you go to court for something and you’re sentenced to basically the death penalty, you’re going to want to try to appeal it, right?” Fulmer said, according to MLB.com. “It’s the worst outcome possible, and I wanted to see another set of eyes just to see if he had any alternative.”
Fulmer, 26, was shut down by the Tigers earlier this spring to work on “lower-body mechanics” as he worked his way back from knee problems that cut short his 2018 season in mid-September. The Tigers said Fulmer began to experience right elbow soreness after a recent bullpen session.
He finished last season with a 3-12 record and a 4.69 ERA in 24 starts over 132 1/3 innings.
In his first season with the Tigers in 2016, Fulmer went 11-7 with a 3.06 ERA and 132 strikeouts in 159 innings. He followed up with a 10-12 mark and a 3.83 ERA in 2017.
Tigers manager Ron Gardenhire told reporters the team will evaluate options to fill Fulmer’s spot in the rotation. Fulmer is expected to miss the 2019 season.
“You always plan for this,” Gardenhire said.
“We have multiple starters. That’s what we’ve said. Right now it’s more about thinking about Fulmer than anything else. We’ll take care of the baseball part and fill in a hole or whatever. Let’s just see how it goes with him and see where we go with that, and we’ll work from there. I feel bad for him right now more than anything else.”
