Aaron Boone breaks silence after Marcus Stroman doesn't report to Spring Training amid trade rumors.
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New York Yankees Manager Aaron Boone addressed the media on Thursday after rumors started spreading on why Yankees starting pitcher Marcus Stroman has been missing from Spring Training for two days.
Marcus Stroman is coming off the worst season of his career. The veteran posted a decent 4.31 ERA (95 ERA+) in 154 2/3 innings of work.
That's serviceable production for the back of a rotation, but a look under the hood reveals some worrying trends.
Stroman posted career-worst numbers in terms of strikeout rate (16.7%), walk rate (8.9%), groundball rate (49.2%), and barrel rate (6.7%).
That across-the-board decline in skills combined with his fastball velocity being nearly two ticks down from 2023 left him with a FIP that was 10% worse than league average.
Subsequently Stroman was demoted to the bullpen which probably didn't sit well with the former Blue Jay.
When AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil established himself as a foundational piece for the Yankees' rotation in 2024 and the Yankees acquired Max Fried this off season Stroman proved to be expendable.
The Yankees have been trying to offload Stroman and his contract ever since, the club even willing to take on most of his salary to accommodate any interested teams.
The only problem is nobody was interested in Stroman's services.
Fast forward to Spring Training 2025 and Stroman is now a no show for the first two days when all the other pitchers and catchers have already reported.
Stroman also deleted and unfollowed the Yankees on social media, Aaron Boone broke his silence about the situation in an interview with Jon Heyman on Thursday.
Aaron Boone tells us here he feels that the Stroman situation will be OK even though Stro «unfollowed» the team (update: and isn't in camp quite yet either). Boone on all in full cast. Also stating it's "within his rights" not to be here.
Aaron Boone said he «had an idea» that Marcus Stroman wouldn't show up for workouts these last two days and that he understands «how it looks.» He called it «a little bit of an awkward» situation, but he's talked to Stroman and he expects him in camp in the next few days.
Do you think the Yankees will trade Marcus Stroman before Opening Day?
You can answer in our Blue Jays Central Poll below.
| POLL | ||
FEVRIER 13 | 213 ANSWERS Aaron Boone breaks silence after Marcus Stroman doesn't report to Spring Training amid trade rumors. Do you think the Yankees will trade Marcus Stroman before Opening Day | ||
| Yes | 147 | 69 % |
| No | 40 | 18.8 % |
| Too early to tell | 26 | 12.2 % |
| List of polls | ||
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