Marcus Stroman agrees with the Yankees

The Yankees have agreed to a two-year, $37 million contract with free agent right-hander Marcus Stroman that also includes a third-season option, a source told MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand. Stroman also posted a photo of himself in a Yankees uniform on his Instagram Stories.

The club has not yet confirmed the agreement, for which the results of medical examinations are still needed.

This isn’t the first time Stroman has been linked to the Yankees. In 2019, New York expressed interest in his services even before the trade deadline. At the time, Stroman was playing for the Blue Jays and dreamed of playing for the Bronx Bombers. Stroman is originally from Medford, New York, which is less than two hours from the Bronx.

“I’m from New York and I’m a New York boy. That speaks for itself,” Stroman said at the time. “I love the pitching (at Yankee Stadium). New York is like the Mecca of the world. I love the excitement, the bright lights, the competition, I love the pressure. I’ve always enjoyed performing here. I didn’t necessarily serve well. But I always liked it. The Yankees lineups are brutal. They are a little difficult to navigate. I like the focus. The bigger the moment, that’s what I wanted it to be.”

Stroman has been a consistently above-average starter for most of his career since debuting with the Blue Jays in 2014. His ERA+ has not been below 113 (13% above average) in any of the last four seasons. He hit those 113 last season in what was shaping up to be perhaps the best year of his career for the 32-year-old pitcher. He maintained a 2.28 ERA and .536 OPS against opponents in his first 16 starts with the Cubs, leading to his second All-Star Game appearance.

However, Stroman’s 2023 campaign took a hit in July as he allowed 27 earned runs in 26.2 innings that month before landing on the injured list on August 2 with right hip inflammation. Stroman’s return to the mound was delayed by a cartilage fracture in his right rib, and once he returned to the Cubs on September 15, he pitched just eight innings in four relief appearances, ending the year. He finished with a 3.95 ERA, the second-highest mark of his career.

These injuries dropped Stroman’s innings total below 140 for the second straight season. He missed a month in 2022 with right shoulder inflammation and was out more than two weeks while battling COVID-19.

Before this, Stroman was one of the most durable pitchers in baseball. He exceeded 180 innings three times in four seasons from 2016 to 2019. He surpassed 200 innings pitched in both the 2016 and 2017 seasons with the Blue Jays. That final season, he won the Gold Glove Award and finished in the top 10 in voting for the American League Cy Young Award.

After being selected to his first All-Star Game in 2019, Stroman was traded from the Blue Jays to the Mets, where he played through 2021. He missed all of 2020 with a torn left calf muscle and then opted out due to COVID. -19 concerns in August.

Stroman, who typically has a below-average strikeout rate, has always relied on his sinker to generate a lot of ground balls and limit truly dangerous contact. His ground ball rate was above 60% in each of the first four years of his career and never dropped below 50%. He finished 2023 with a score of 57%, which was his best performance since 2018.