Boston Red Sox roster: Veteran elects free agency after being outrighted
BOSTON — Veteran Michael Fulmer elected free agency after the Red Sox outrighted him Sunday.
Boston had designated the 32-year-old righty for assignment before Friday's game, removing him from the 40-man roster.
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Fulmer, who won the 2016 AL Rookie of the Year and was named a 2017 AL All-Star, spent six days on Boston's 26-man roster and appeared in just one game. He allowed three runs, four hits and two walks while striking out two in 2 ⅔ innings Monday in a 16-1 loss to the Rays at Tampa.
Fulmer signed a rare two-year minor league contract in February 2024 while he was rehabbing from Tommy John revision surgery. He rehabbed all last season in Fort Myers with the Red Sox coaches and trainers there.
He began this season at Triple-A Worcester where he allowed four earned runs in 11 ⅔ innings over three outings (two starts).
His 'very long road' back to the majors included living in a camper during spring training and while in Worcester.
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Fulmer has a career 3.96 ERA in 263 outings (90 starts).
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Miami Herald
an hour ago
- Miami Herald
Miami Marlins' shortstop Javier Sanoja continues to impress with versatility
Depending on the day, you'll find Javier Sanoja in the Miami Marlins' starting lineup at second base. Or shortstop. Or third base. Or left field. Or center field. During games, he's played first base. He's pitched. Pinch-hit. Pinch-run. From the infield to the outfield gaps, the 5-foot-7, 150-pound dynamo has been the Marlins' ultimate plug-and-play weapon. 'A guy like Javi can carve out a really nice career because it's a real luxury for myself to have someone that you feel confident to be able to plug in so many places,' Marlins' manager Clayton McCullough said. 'He takes pride in it,' said first base/infield defense/baserunning coach Tyler Smarslok. 'He knows he needs to be ready to jump at any position at any given time, and he's ready for it all. He knows that wherever you put him, he can do the job. And that's what sets him apart from a lot of utility guys in the league.' The only field positions the 22-year-old Sanoja hasn't played in his first full season in the majors are right field and catcher. 'As a kid in little league, I was a catcher. They later moved me to the infield because of my size,' Sanoja said via team interpreter Luis Dorante Jr. 'But if there's ever a situation in a game where I need to catch, I would put the gear on and go out there.' The Marlins are set behind the plate with Nick Fortes, Augustín Ramírez and Liam Hicks. But you get the point. 'I was always able to change positions since I was little, mostly for the goodness of the team, and to be able to be in the lineup as well,' Sanoja said. Growing up in Maracay, Venezuela, Sanoja admired another diminutive player, Jose Altuve. Standing just 5-foot-6 and weighing 166 pounds, the fellow Venezuelan has racked up nine All-Star selections, seven Silver Sluggers, and two World Series titles with the Astros. 'That motivates me to follow those footsteps. Even though I don't know him as much, he has guided me a lot during his career,' Sanoja said. 'I think his resiliency, the way he plays the game, the way he motivates others, I thank God for putting such a great example in front of me that I can use to guide myself.' Sanoja said he grew up doubted for his size. 'I think I'm an example that you don't have to listen to those people saying no, right?' he said. 'You've got to always try to follow the ones supporting you and my parents were the biggest support I had as a kid. They never pushed me to be a professional baseball player. They pushed me to do the things I loved the most and I wanted to do. You've got to continue believing in yourself. 'I've got to thank God for the strength he gave me because it was coming from within. Never was I doubting myself. I was always believing that I could make it. Even the tough moments when I was looking at some of my teammates were signing and I was not signing. It was difficult. But I just kept going, pushing forward, believing in myself. 'To those guys, the little kids that are a little smaller, what I can say is, 'Be different. Try to play more like Caribbean baseball. Try to do what the other guys cannot do. That's going to separate you from the bunch of players everybody's looking at. You will find a way.'' Sanoja had an RBI in his MLB debut with the Marlins last September, and his first start with them the following day was even more memorable. He had two hits, after which third baseman Connor Norby said of Sanoja, 'I was like, 'Who is this little guy? He mashes, he just rakes, he hits everybody and everything.' Sanoja is hitting .237 (37-of-156) with 15 RBI and 18 runs scored this season. He's pitched five innings across four relief appearances — all in blowout losses — and allowed 11 earned runs. Defensively, he's been nearly flawless: just one error in 59 games, with 65 putouts, 86 assists, and 18 double plays turned. 'He's done an incredible job. He's ultra prepared every day. He's incredibly consistent,' Smarslok said. 'It's a really tall order to play a lot of positions even good. And he does them extremely well. Not to mention they're all premium positions. His preparation, his ability to mentally lock into a position. What are the priorities? 'When he's playing short, he's got to attack a little bit more. He knows that. Second base, he can play deeper angles and really use his range to his disposal. When he's in center, he just goes ball-out athlete. He's going to catch the ball and make a lot of plays for us. 'I've said it before, I think this kid is going to win a utility gold glove at some point in his career if he continues to be a utility player. But he could be a regular at all these positions, as well.' For now, there's no everyday spot for Sanoja, who signed as a shortstop. He's started 16 games at second base, 11 in left field, seven at shortstop, and five each at third base and center field. 'If they put me in a specific position, I would still be working on the other ones because the season is so long, there are always injuries,' Sanoja said. 'Somebody will need support at different positions, so I will be ready for any position.' So how does his pregame routine work? If he's in the starting lineup, he focuses on that day's position. If he's not starting, he picks a spot he feels needs more attention — usually shortstop or third base, since those demand longer throws and sharper footwork. On non-start days, you'll typically find him working at one of those two spots. 'It's not easy at all,' Sanoja said. 'It's very difficult the amount of different routines I have to follow. And thank God I have a good chemistry with Coach Smarslok, that we have several different routines for each position. We keep working really hard to improve.' In the fifth inning Sunday, as the Marlins wrapped up a seven-game homestand with a 5-3 win over the Braves, Sanoja showed 'some of the swag' Smarslok raves about that looks like 'he's been doing this for 10 years.' The fielding chameleon charged a grounder off Ronald Acuña Jr.'s bat, barehanded it, and fired all the way across the diamond to first to beat his speedy countryman. Acuña nodded in approval and pointed toward Sanoja, saluting the defensive wizardry. 'Great play by Sanoja. He is a tremendous player. He can play all the positions. He just needs to catch one game to play the full positions,' pitcher Sandy Alcantara said, laughing, after the game. 'I love seeing him play out there.'
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
2025 Home Run Derby: Five sluggers we want to see debut and hit dingers
Major League Baseball's annual celebration of longballs is fast approaching, with the 2025 Home Run Derby set for Monday, July 14 at Truist Park in Atlanta and sluggers dreaming of joining the exclusive list of winners. This year's participants are not yet official, but a handful of stars are already voicing their desire to swing for the fences. While we should expect some veterans in the field like two-time winner Pete Alonso, the Home Run Derby can be a showcase for the game's up-and-coming young hitters. There was a stretch in the 21st century where a lot of top players would shy away from taking part, largely due to a long-running fear of the "Home Run Derby Curse" and the notion that the contest can negatively impact your swing long-term. The data is still out that on that. But that's changed in recent years, with young players eager to put on a show – even if they aren't pure home run hitters. Here's a look at five rising sluggers we want to see make their Home Run Derby debuts in Atlanta: Cal Raleigh, Seattle Mariners Could "The Big Dumper" become the first catcher to win the Home Run Derby? Leading the majors with 32 homers, Raleigh should smash Salvador Perez's single-season record for catchers and is on pace to top Aaron Judge's American League record 62 homers. Seattle's 28-year-old backstop already counts Johnny Bench among his biggest fans and told USA TODAY Sports he'd jump at the chance to participate in the Derby if he were invited: "Why wouldn't you want to do something like that?" As of June 24, the Mariners still have 19 games left before the All-Star break and Raleigh has a chance to become just the seventh player in history to reach 35 in the first half. James Wood, Washington Nationals One of the tallest players in baseball at 6-foot-7, Washington's 22-year-old slugger is tied for third in baseball with 12 "no-doubters" – homers that would be gone in all 30 stadiums according to Baseball Savant. Wood is averaging 415 feet per home run, second among all players with at least 13 homers entering play on June 23. 'I mean, it's been brought up,' Wood told reporters about his potential participation. 'But I mean, I don't know. We'll see. That'd be cool if I'm invited. So let's try to get that first.' Said Wood: 'I've heard all of it. Like, 'It'll mess up your swing.' But I'm sure there's a whole lot of stuff it's good for. ... 'You're taking as many swings as you can in, like, 2½ minutes. That's a lot.' Elly De La Cruz, Cincinnati Reds Cincinnati's unicorn shortstop has declined to participate the past two years, but hinted in 2024 that his time would come eventually. 'It's not my time to do it yet,' De La Cruz told reporters last season. 'It's too many swings, and I want to rest on those days,' he said, having talked with other Dominican players who participated in the past. The 23-year-old has 18 home runs in 79 games, on track to blow past the 25 he hit as a first-time All-Star last year. Said De La Cruz's agent Scott Boras in 2024: 'I guess it'll happen someday. ... Elly is an athlete. The Home Run Derby requires a visceral strength to repeat something which is very different than being an elite baseball player. 'Like Pete Alonso (of the Mets) and those kind of guys with those kind of bodies and strength, you can understand why they can endure a home run contest.' Andy Pages, Los Angeles Dodgers In his second year, Los Angeles' 24-year-old outfielder overcame a slow start and has hit .330 with 14 homers and 47 RBIs in 55 games from April 22-June 22. His 16 home runs are second on the Dodgers behind Shohei Ohtani and he's playing his way into consideration for a spot on the All-Star team – managed by Los Angeles skipper Dave Roberts. Junior Caminero, Tampa Bay Rays Tampa Bay's 21-year-old third baseman has found his power stroke in his first full season, clubbing 19 homers through 73 games in 2025, quickly becoming one of the top young hitters in the game. He's also totally down for the Derby, which has never been won by a Rays player. "If I get selected, and they give me the opportunity, yes," Caminero said in an appearance on Foul Territory. "I'm not going to say that I'm going to win, but I'm going to put on a great show for the fans, and it's going to be entertaining." The biggest stories, every morning. Stay up-to-date on all the key sports developments by subscribing to USA TODAY Sports' newsletter.
Indianapolis Star
2 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
'Like tug-of-war and rope broke': Ex-Colts doctor explains Tyrese Haliburton's torn Achilles
INDIANAPOLIS -- Dr. Patrick Kersey was watching Sunday night just like the rest of Indiana Pacers nation, watching what coach Rick Carlisle said caused his heart to drop, watching what brought tough NBA players to tears, watching as Tyrese Haliburton collapsed and started pounding his fists on the court. "You can use whatever symbols you'd like here. My reaction was oh (expletive)," said Kersey, a sports medicine physician with Ascension St. Vincent in Carmel. "I would say I immediately knew what happened. You could see it and you could see the kind of retraction and my heart just fell into my stomach. I was just crushed." Kersey was watching as a huge Pacers fan, but also as an expert on just how devastating the injury the All-Star point guard suffered in the Pacers' Game 7 NBA Finals loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder Sunday night, a torn right Achilles tendon. Kersey spent nearly 15 years as a team physician for the Indianapolis Colts, part of that during the Peyton Manning era. He is also the medical director of USA Football. IndyStar talked with Kersey Monday in detail about the injury Haliburton suffered. He has not treated or seen Haliburton as a patient. "A torn achilles is the big kind of connective tendon that leads from your heel bone to the back of your knee or your calf muscle. It is the connective tendon that connects the muscle to the bone, and it is very high-end functional and how we push off, our toe pushing off. 'So a tear of that tendon actually disrupts the ability for that mechanism to work and so a torn tendon would be no different than you and I in a tug-of-war and the rope broke." "The strain is actually some minor degree of fiber tearing. A strain is muscle and tendon. A sprain is ligament. So when you hear the strain word and people are like, 'What does that mean?' Well, some of the fibers in that muscle or tendon have been disrupted. So there's thousands upon millions of those fibers and when you talk about a strain, it's some of those fibers, and I'll use jeans as an example. 'Back when we were growing up, you couldn't really have frayed jeans. That wasn't too cool. Now it's pretty cool. But, fraying fibers of your fabric is a good example of what a minor strain would be, where some of those fibers have disrupted, or they've given way, or they're not as strong as they were before." "There's a bunch of variable potential answers there, but it's kind of a scenario that makes stress in that area a little to a lot more vulnerable. So, if you strain a muscle like your calf, that actually puts some of the tissue around that a bit vulnerable because it has to do a little extra work. It has to be a little extra strong or flexible and, to an extent, the vulnerability is not actually the injury itself, it is actually the forces around that maybe exceed the body's ability to handle them. 'And so probably Tyrese's scenario was that strain made him a little sensitive or a lot sensitive to higher end forces that potentially stress that Achilles tendon and maybe in its weakened state, it gave way." "With an Achilles disruption, if the rope tore, and tore in half, that has to be put back together. And so surgery will definitely be required to re-approximate or put those kind of frayed ends back together so they can heal. Those are generally kind of sewn or tied back together like you would similar (to sewing fabric back together). 'And then that will scar and heal over periods of time. It is a little bit of a vulnerable area and takes a bit of time and so recovery is anywhere between eight to 10, 11 months. So, it'll be a bit of time before he's probably back playing basketball." "Probably crazy activity and use over the last couple years. He hadn't had a break in a long time. That he had an injury a few days ago, that was definitely a contributor, and then he's trying his tail off. He's given everything he has to give effort to play that game and Mother Nature gave us a graphic demonstration of kind of product failure." "Eight Achilles disruptions I think in this NBA season does seem to sound like a lot. That's quite a few. In the scale of number, I think it does seem a little on the high side. And maybe we're just more drawn to it because of our attention, watching and those kind of things. But that does seem like a higher number." "These guys are as high-end competitive athletes and individuals as you can imagine. Telling someone not to play is, that's their livelihood. He would have chewed your arm off to get in that game. No one wants to play more than they do. And you know, it is, it's heartbreaking. I mean, I still have a knot in my stomach feeling bad for him."
