GLENDALE, Ariz. — Christian Cairo had just finished his freshman year of high school and celebrated his 14th birthday when Carson Fulmer was the eighth overall pick in the 2015 draft.

But there they both were on a windy Saturday afternoon – Cairo, the son of former big-leaguer Miguel Cairo and a 20-year-old prospect in the early days of his pro career, and Fulmer, a 28-year-old pitching for his sixth organization since 2019 – facing off on the back fields at Camelback Ranch to start a scrimmage between minor-leaguers from the Dodgers and Cleveland Guardians organizations.

It’s not where a No. 8 pick should be nearly seven years after his selection. Others taken around Fulmer in the 2015 draft are established big-leaguers now – including Walker Buehler, who was taken 17th by the Dodgers in that draft and pitched behind Fulmer in the Vanderbilt rotation.

Fulmer has pitched in the big leagues each year since 2016, making his MLB debut 13 months after he was drafted by the Chicago White Sox. But he has yet to establish himself, rolling from the White Sox to the Tigers to the Pirates to the Orioles to the Reds (a waiver claim each time) before the Dodgers selected him in the minor-league Rule 5 draft in December.

“Being with six different organizations in two years, you kind of hear everything. I think for the most part I said, ‘Yes’ to all of those things,” Fulmer said, a wide grin frequently spreading over his face as he talked.

“I got drafted on power and ability, right? When I got into pro ball, a lot of that kind of got away just because I made a lot of mechanical changes and did a lot of reps the wrong way. But I wanted to fly through the system and make it to the big leagues. I think I wanted to please a lot of people more than just be myself. Even looking at video from Vandy, it brings back a lot of good memories about how I competed back then. I think that’s the biggest step right now.”

Fulmer is surrounded by fellow Vanderbilt alumni in the Dodgers’ organization with Buehler a close friend. Fulmer calls the Dodgers right-hander “one of my best pitching coaches because of how long I’ve been with him and how much I’ve thrown with him.”

“I think that he had chirped at the front office a little bit and tried to get me over here,” Fulmer joked. “He was excited (when the Dodgers acquired Fulmer). At the end of the day, he knows what I’m capable of. He just wanted me to be in the right place, the right situation.”

Fulmer takes at least partial blame for not being able to find the right situation in his first six years as a pro.

“I think it was a personal thing for me because I wanted to move so fast. I got away from being myself a little bit,” said Fulmer, considered an “undersized” right-hander at 6-foot, 210.

The message from the Dodgers staff so far, he said, has been to “be myself, be quick and athletic and compete like I always have.”

“I’m pitching to my strengths,” he said. “I have a clear plan on what I’m trying to do. … I just have to pitch to what I’m good at. I think that’s all they want me to do here. They think that I’m going to be a very big part of this organization and I think that’s really reassuring.”

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The Dodgers used a franchise-record 39 pitchers in 2021, the first full season after the pandemic-shortened 2020 schedule. With the uncertainty caused by MLB’s ongoing lockout of big-league players, another year of cautious pitcher usage is probably ahead and Fulmer would be a good bet to pitch for the Dodgers at some point in 2022.

Who knows – he and Buehler might end up starting Friday and Saturday games for the same team again.

“That’d be sweet,” Fulmer said. “That’d be sweet.”