A few years ago, the New York Yankees publicly stated that they thought Marcus Stroman was not a “difference-maker.” Now, though, the organization’s thoughts appear to have changed, enough so to hand the veteran right-hander a two-year deal.
Stroman, a native of Long Island, opted out of the final year of his contract with the Chicago Cubs to become a free agent. The 32-year-old has been an effective starter over his nine-year career but does have some durability concerns attached to him.
Here’s a closer look at the deal and what it means.
The deal: The Yankees and Stroman agreed to a two-year, $37-million contract with a vesting option for a third year.
The runners up: The Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox and San Francisco Giants were all linked to Stroman.
The player: Stroman was among the better pitchers in the National League during the first half of last season, in which he posted a 2.96 ERA. However, injuries and ineffectiveness tanked his second half, perhaps impacting the outlook on him as a free agent. Stroman has not topped 25 starts or 140 innings in each of the past two seasons and has been plagued by shoulder, hip and rib-cage injuries over that span.
For those reasons it would have made sense for the right-hander to not opt out of his contract with Cubs and look to put together a healthy, productive season before entering the market next winter. The fact that he didn’t do that came as a surprise.
The Yankees will be Stroman’s fourth team over his past five seasons. He broke into the big leagues in 2014 with the Toronto Blue Jays and was traded to the New York Mets in 2019, then joined the Cubs ahead of the 2022 campaign.
The five-foot-seven right-hander owns a 3.65 ERA and 3.63 FIP over his career. He’s carved out a reputation as one of the premier groundball pitchers in baseball and last year his 57.4 ground-ball rate ranked in the 94 percentile among big leaguers.
The fit: The Yankees had conversations with the Blue Jays about acquiring Stroman ahead of the 2019 trade deadline before the right-hander was eventually dealt to the crosstown Mets. According to Wallace Matthews of Yahoo Sports, Yankees general manager Brian Cashman was not completely sold on the diminutive starter.
“We were interested in Stroman but we didn’t think he would be a difference-maker,” Cashman said. “We felt he would be in our bullpen in the postseason.”
Stroman later responded on Twitter with a tweet that has since been deleted. It read: “Besides [Gerrit] Cole, there’s no current Yankee pitcher who will be anywhere in my league over the next five-to-seven years. Their pitching always folds in the end. That lineup and payroll should be winning World Series left and right…yet they’re in a drought. Lol.”
Fast forward a few years later and those fences appear to have mended. The Yankees entered the off-season needing to boost their starting rotation. After missing out on Japanese pitcher Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and reportedly balking at the price for free-agent lefty Blake Snell, the club turned to Stroman. He figures to round out a starting staff that includes Cole, Carlos Rodon, Clarke Schmidt and Nestor Cortes.
The market: MLB Trade Rumors predicted Stroman would net a two-year contract worth $44 million. He met that in term but did command the estimated dollar amount.
The next domino: Snell and Jordan Montgomery, who are both clients of super agent Scott Boras, remain atop the list of impact free-agent starters.