New York Yankees starting pitcher Marcus Stroman was struggling mightily before landing on the injured list with a knee injury. He has an 11.57 ERA in 9.1 innings pitched this season, which includes his last start in which he didn’t get out of the first inning against the San Francisco Giants.
Yankees’ Marcus Stroman’s fastball has been wildly ineffective
Stroman’s stuff doesn’t have the same life it once did during his prime, and one stat recently discovered by X user @papa_cole45 was astonishing. Stroman’s tjstuff+ on his fastball was registered at 85 points, which was only four points higher than Baltimore Orioles catcher and former Yankee Gary Sanchez, who pitched a relief outing in a blowout loss to the Cincinnati Reds on Sunday.
In essence, Stroman’s fastball has been equally as effective as Sanchez’s, which is a major concern given that one is an actual starting pitcher while the other is a position player.
Stroman has had a rough Yankees tenure, and after failing to find a trade partner in the offseason, they were relying on him with all the injuries to the rotation. The hope was that he would find a way to deliver positive results in the meantime, but that has not been the case thus far.
Stroman’s Yankees tenure has been far from kind to him
Before the injuries, the Yankees wanted to have Stroman come out of the bullpen after last year’s struggles and the signing of Max Fried. However, Stroman defiantly refused to pitch out of the bullpen, reiterating that he feels he is still a starting pitcher in this league.
Last year, Stroman fizzled out of the rotation at the end of the season and made zero appearances throughout the playoffs. During the second half last season, Stroman posted a 5.50 ERA in July and a 8.80 ERA in September, which led to him being booted from the rotation.
He has been notorious for completely falling apart during the second half of a season, but this season, he has been ineffective from the get-go. It is unclear how long Stroman will be out with the knee injury, but even when he returns, they have a real problem that they will need to get addressed when it comes to his arsenal.