Winter caravan notes: Fulmer feels fine, Zimmermann to get another neck injection

The Tigers and Michael Fulmer have been pretty consistent all offseason that his rehab from ulnar transposition surgery is going well, maybe even better than expected. On Thursday, as Fulmer and his teammates met with the media to open the Tigers Winter Caravan, he retirated that.

“I like the way everything’s working — no pain, no problems, no numbness,” Fulmer said. “I’m commanding the ball pretty decently, which I thought was odd, and then the ball’s coming out well, too.”

Fulmer has spent the vast majority of the offseason working out at the Tigers’ Spring Training facility in Lakeland, rather than at his home in Oklahoma. He’s had company, with infielder Dixon Machado and reliever Joe Jimenez working out there as well. Machado makes his home there now, while Jimenez spent his offseason there with his native Puerto Rico still recovering from hurricane damage.

“Every day, 9 o’clock, we go stretch,” Fulmer said. “It’s good. It’s warm weather. It’s better than being in Oklahoma for throwing outside. It already feels like Spring Training, honestly. We get out, we do our thing. We throw a bullpen if we need to. We condition, we go lift. Then we take it to the house. It’s Spring Training without the team stuff. I’m already in Spring Training mode. My body wakes me up at 6 o’clock every morning now, which stinks. But we’re just excited to be down there and be able to use the facility in Lakeland. It’s really, really nice to be able to use that every single day of the week.”

Fulmer has thrown off a mound with no issues.

In other Tigers injury news:

• Jordan Zimmermann already has another nerve block injection in mind for his neck, but he says it’s not a sign that his neck is bothering him again. Rather, he said it’s about making sure it doesn’t bother him during the season again. “We might get an injection sometime during spring, just precautionary so it doesn’t flare up right away,” he said. “I got the one in November [2016] and I made it to the All-Star break, and then I started feeling it again. So I’m thinking if I get it in Spring Training, I should be able to make it through the whole year. I think that’s the way we’re leaning.” Zimmermann can’t throw for four days after an injection, he said, so another one in Spring Training would probably cost a spring start, maybe two if he has to build up his arm again. So far, he said, he’s throwing the ball “free and easy” with no issues.
• Alex Wilson, whose season ended in mid-September with a broken leg, said he has thrown off a mound already and is on his regular offseason workout plan. “I’m full-go now,” Wilson said. “I have no limitations whatsoever.”