This offseason, the New York Yankees are still looking to improve their pitching staff. After missing out on the Yoshinobu Yamamoto sweepstakes, they’ve been pursuing free agency left-handers Blake Snell, Jordan Montgomery, and Josh Hader, as well as trade targets like Dylan Cease. However, the Yankees have a new free agency option in starting pitcher Marcus Stroman. According to USA Today’s Bob Nightengale, Stroman has “informed the Yankees that he’s seriously interested in signing with them.” However, according to Nightengale, the Yankees have declined to make an offer to the 32-year-old right-hander.
The Yankees were interested in Stroman while he was with the Toronto Blue Jays at the 2019 trade deadline. He was eventually traded to the New York Mets at the deadline; after pitching for about a season and a half with the Mets (he opted out of the COVID-shortened 2020 season), he became a free agent and signed a three-year contract with the Chicago Cubs. Stroman chose to opt out of his contract after two seasons in Chicago in order to re-enter free agency. He had a 10-9 record in 25 starts and 136.2 innings pitched in 2023, with a 3.95 ERA, 3.58 FIP, and 1.259 WHIP. Stroman, a pitch-to-contract pitcher with a 57.1% ground ball rate last season, has a 3.65 career ERA and a 3.63 career FIP. He has tossed at least 100 innings every year except 2015, making him a relatively steady fixture in a starting rotation. Stroman is also adept at keeping the ball inside the park, with a career 0.8 HR/9 rate; his 0.6 HR/9 in 2023 was a career high.
However, Stroman has also been very outspoken off the field and has unfortunately had plenty of run-ins and arguments with Yankee fans. Although he has experience pitching under the bright lights of New York thanks to his Mets tenure, he left Queens under controversial circumstances by blasting former general manager Billy Eppler in since-deleted Twitter posts. It is somewhat surprising that the Yankees don’t want to deal with Stroman’s off-field behavior; they were willing to trade for Josh Donaldson in 2022 despite a past conflict with pitcher Gerrit Cole. The Yankees have also dealt with the off-field issues of Domingo Germán for six seasons, which were much more distracting than any of Stroman’s previous antics. Nonetheless, the Yankees have little interest in bringing Stroman aboard. But if the Yankees can’t attract their preferred pitching targets to the Bronx, maybe they can reconsider bringing in the outspoken but talented righty as a fourth or fifth starting option.
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