The deal the New York Mets and Detroit Tigers struck last July will always be known as the Yoenis Cespedes trade, and for good reason.

Cespedes, after all, went on a Ruthian tear after heading from the Motor City to Queens, helping the Mets reach the postseason and win the National League pennant.

Cespedes had such a good time in a Mets uniform, in fact, that he re-upped with the team this winter and is raking again, despite a recent slump.

There were other players involved in that trade, however. And lately, rookie right-hander Michael Fulmer has been making it look like a win-win swap.

The 2011 first-round pick, who the Mets sent to Detroit along with Luis Cessa, is making quite the impression in his first season with the Tigers.

With six shutout innings in Sunday’s 4-1 win over the New York Yankees, Fulmer extended his scoreless innings streak to 28.1 innings, the second-longest by a rookie in franchise history, per Anthony Fenech of the Detroit Free Press

And he joined some elite historical company, per Baseball Tonight:

Fulmer is now 7-1 on the season with a 2.52 ERA and 52 strikeouts in 53.2 innings.

He sits in the mid-90s with his fastball, though he can touch the high 90s. And he complements that with a hard, biting slider and a changeup that he refined after some early-season struggles.

Four starts into the season, Fulmer’s ERA sat at an unsightly 6.52. So he extended his between-starts bullpen session by roughly 20 pitches to work on his changeup, per Chris McCosky of the Detroit News

Since then, he’s allowed a single earned run in five starts and shaved four points off his ERA.

“You’ve got to give him credit,” catcher James McCann said, per McCosky. “That pitch is mostly for his future, giving him a third pitch. He can’t survive on a fastball and slider. Players will make an adjustment. This is a third dimension to his repertoire.”

Indeed, entering Sunday’s start, opposing batters were hitting just .190 against Fulmer’s changeup.

Early on, as Sports Illustrated‘s Kenny Ducey noted, Fulmer “was plagued by hard-hit flyballs—which have never gone to benefit a major-league pitcher. His flyball rate hasn’t really plummeted since then, but his hard-hit rate has, and his ground ball rate has risen. Fewer home runs and more ground balls make for a happy pitcher.”

Jordan Zimmermann has been solid in his first season since inking a five-year, $110 million contract with Detroit, posting a 3.30 ERA through 11 starts. And Justin Verlander has strung together a nice stretch after watching his ERA balloon to 6.49 on May 3, lowering that number to 3.77 while fanning 90 in 86 innings.

No other Detroit starter, however, owns an ERA below 4.00. It’s too early to anoint Fulmer the ace, but it’s not too early to ask where the Tigers—who sit three games out in the American League Central at 32-30would be without him.

Speaking of Verlander, Fulmer recently drew a favorable comparison to the former AL Cy Young Award-winner and MVP.

“He’s a go-after guy,” former Detroit hurler Joel Zumaya said, per Jeff Seidel of the Detroit Free Press. “He shows no emotion. His emotion is: OK, I’m going to eat you and I’m going to get you. He goes right after guys. I was that type of guy, Verlander is that type of guy.”

We’re talking about a 23-year-old kid after only a handful of starts, so this is where we temper the enthusiasm a tad. Zumaya himself is an example of how even the most promising careers can fizzle.

Still, Fulmer undoubtedly has the Tigers excited. While there are surely fans in Detroit who sigh wistfully whenever Cespedes goes on one of his patented power binges, Fulmer is helping to balance the ledger.

If he keeps going like he has been, someday we might even look back and proclaim the Tigers won the trade outright. Cespedes, remember, is almost certainly going to opt out of his deal after this season and command huge money in a weak free-agent class, whereas Fulmer is under club control for years to come. 

Yes, again, it’s a small sample size. There will be bumps and course corrections, as there always are.

But any time a player who’s helping your team win now also looks like an important piece of the future, you’re permitted to smile.

The more zeroes Fulmer tosses up, the bigger those grins will get.

 

All statistics current as of June 12 and courtesy of MLB.com and FanGraphs unless otherwise noted.

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