BUFFALO, N.Y. – The temptation will be to look at Marcus Stroman’s performance Tuesday night and call his six innings of no-hit, one-walk ball with 10 strikeouts a statement outing, a message to the Toronto Blue Jays that he’s ready.
And really, given the way he overwhelmed the Louisville Bats for the Buffalo Bisons in a 4-1 victory during his fifth triple-A start, it would be difficult to argue that he doesn’t deserve a shot at “The Show.”
Stroman, however, is doing his best to push all that talk aside. He’s heard all the chatter – there’s no avoiding it for someone as active on Twitter as he is – and is smart enough to know the deal, but the lessons he learned from a mediocre spring are preventing his imagination from running wild.
“I’ve just been so much more relaxed,” he said in an interview with Sportsnet. “Honestly, in the spring I felt like that was the first time in my career that I was putting pressure on myself when I’m usually laid back, let’s go out there and have fun, because of the opportunity.
“Now it’s completely different, I feel like I’m in a good position. … There’s no added pressure, I feel like I have a huge weight lifted off my chest, and I’m just ready to go out there and dominate.”
Dominate he did, and now it’s decision time for the Blue Jays, who raised eyebrows by pushing Stroman’s start back from Sunday to Tuesday, and then capped him at 80 pitches after outings of 97, 94 and 95 – both telltale signs something is up.
The immediate conclusion was that he was being lined up with Dustin McGowan, who is barely hanging on to his spot in the rotation. But their primary thinking was to set him up as an option for a spot start this Sunday against the Pittsburgh Pirates (who had a scout in attendance), or versus the Philadelphia Phillies on May 5 or 6.
Should McGowan indeed return to the bullpen, J.A. Happ is likely to get the first crack at the rotation slot because he has a big-league track record, the club wants to give him a chance to see how he fares, and its investment of $5.2 million in the left-hander is ample incentive to do it.
Stroman is the leading candidate should they indeed have someone make a spot start to provide an extra day of rest for their five-man rotation at the front end of a 20-game slate. Concerns about adding him to the 40-man roster, starting his service-time clock and potentially burning an option by sending him back down won’t be factors in the decision.
Put all together, it seems more like a matter of when, rather than if, for Stroman, who credits his parents for pushing him to avoid connecting the dots.
“Obviously you start to think why they would push you back, but you don’t want to think too much,” he said. “I feel like I’ve done that in the past at certain times and you get too caught up in the moment. I’ve been doing my best to stay in the moment and really focus on today.”
That focus made for a miserable night for Louisville hitters, who looked like they were trying to hit a pebble with a toothpick.
He faced 19 batters and one – ONE! – hit the ball out of the infield, a lazy fly ball to centre by Kristopher Negron that was beyond routine for Anthony Gose. Mike Wilson hit a soft popper to Ryan Goins at second for the only other ball in the air, and the other six outs that didn’t come via strikeout were all on weak ground balls, one snared niftily between the legs by a spinning Stroman.
The volume of grounders is an important sign as pitching down in the zone has been a focal point because “he got away with some stuff thigh-high last year with double-A hitters,” said Bisons manager Gary Allenson.
“He’s made the adjustment of getting the ball down very well,” he added.
Bisons pitching coach Randy St. Claire added that being down in the zone was especially important for the five-foot-nine Stroman because “he can’t elevate balls not on purpose.”
“If he wants to elevate on purpose for chase swings that’s fine,” he continued. “But because of his short stature, when he throws a ball that’s thigh-high, it really stays on one plane, hitters see it a long time. If he works at the bottom of the zone, then he still gets some downhill plane, they’re going to hit the ball into the ground for him.”
Stroman has been doing that with his fastball, a developing sinker and a changeup he’s now throwing to right-handed hitters as well as left-handed batters.
“What happens in the games sometimes is I like to gear up and throw,” he said. “I’m more conscious of really staying over the rubber and staying over the ball and really working down into the zone. That opens up the ability to elevate when I need to, rather than pitching at waist level the entire game and getting fly balls and running into homers.”
Stroman, who turns 23 on Thursday, now has a 1.69 ERA in five starts for the Bisons with 36 strikeouts in 26.2 innings. Opponents are batting .222 against him and he’s surrendered 22 hits and seven walks, the type of pedal-to-the-metal push teams typically like to see from their top prospects before calling them up.
If he comes up to the big-leagues and maintains that, could the Blue Jays really make his stint a one-and-done? Their rotation could use a shot in the arm, and while Happ offers the potential of back-end reliability, Stroman could be a dose of adrenaline to the heart.
Whichever way they land, the Blue Jays’ deliberations are suddenly a lot more interesting.
Even the most conservative members of the club’s player-development staff, the ones most likely to argue against a call up, believe he’s ready and there is no shortage of those who want Stroman to not only get a spot start, but several more afterwards.
Meanwhile, the 2012 first-round pick with the electric arm, engaging personality and high-wattage smile waits patiently, knowing he’s held up his end of the bargain.
“Whenever that opportunity does come, I’m going to be ecstatic,” he said. “But I’m focusing on the present day and doing everything I can do here to make sure that when the time does come, I’m ready for the challenge.”
After Tuesday’s performance, it sure seems like it.