TODAY: Stroman’s MRI revealed swelling but no structural damage, Boone told the New York Post’s Greg Joyce and other reporters. Stroman received a cortisone shot to help deal with the inflammation.
APRIL 12: The Yankees announced that right-hander Marcus Stroman was placed on the 15-day injured list due to left knee inflammation. Right-hander Allan Winans is taking Stroman’s spot on the active roster, after Winans’ contract was selected from Triple-A.
It has been a brutal start to the season for Stroman, who has an 11.57 ERA over three starts and 9 1/3 innings. The lowest point came in the Yankees’ 9-1 loss to the Giants yesterday, as Stroman was charged with five earned runs over an abbreviated start that lasted only two-thirds of an inning. Following the game, New York manager Aaron Boone said Stroman was dealing with some knee soreness and had undergone x-rays.
Since the issue is being described just as inflammation, it appears as though Stroman has avoided any type of structural damage, even if an IL stint is still necessary. If the injury ends up being relatively minor and Stroman misses around the 15-day minimum, the absence could essentially act as an unofficial reset to his difficult year.
Missing any time at all could heavily impact Stroman’s contractual future, as he has a vesting option in his contract for the 2026 season. Stroman is in the final guaranteed season of his two-year, $37MM deal with the Yankees, but he’ll lock in an $18MM player option for 2026 if he pitches at least 140 innings this year. Stroman logged 154 2/3 innings in 2024, while posting a 4.31 ERA, 49.2% grounder rate, 8.9% walk rate, and a 16.7% strikeout rate that was well below his career norm.
Between this so-so production and up to two years of salary commitments on the way, the Yankees made Stroman available on the trade market last winter, but no takers were found. New York also seemingly had a rotation surplus that made Stroman expendable, but the Yankees’ pitching depth was quickly reduced when Gerrit Cole (Tommy John surgery), Luis Gil, Clarke Schmidt, and JT Brubaker were all lost to the IL. Schmidt is expected back this coming week, but his return just as Stroman hits the injured list only adds to the Yankees’ difficulties in finding enough healthy arms to cover the rotation workload.
Winans was claimed off waivers from the Braves in January, and was then designated for assignment and outrighted off New York’s 40-man roster in February. Winans has started all eight of his career MLB games (all with Atlanta in 2023-24) but seems much likelier to take on a long relief role in the Yankees’ bullpen. Over 40 big league innings, Winans has an ungainly 7.20 ERA, but his minor league numbers are far more impressive. The righty has a 3.20 ERA in 258 2/3 innings at the Triple-A level, perhaps hinting at some late breakout potential as he enters his age-29 season.
Making sure those innings don’t get reached…..
Stroman is doing a good enough job of that himself. I never want to see him pitch for the Yankees again
I did not want him signed, but after his strong start last season, thought I was proven wrong. By the end of the year (and with his off-field personality), I believe my gut was right. I don’t care for him as a Yankee either.
What happened to all the nice things you said about Stro when you were trying to pawn him off on us (pre-Pivetta) this offseason, Clip?
“What happened to all..pawn him off”…In sales talk, you’re generally allowed to accentuate the positives, while either skipping or minimizing the negatives. That’s why the general rule of buying and selling is “caveat emptor” or “buyer beware”.
*insert sunglasses & big grin emoji*
Gwynning: Like I said, he’s amazing… the best. I would only let him go if you made me an offer I couldn’t refuse and even then, I’d have to REALLY think about it….. probably the best Yankee pitcher of our generation –
Michael King you say? Oh man, but that’s so little for someone of Stroman’s caliber. Well, only because I like you, I’ll do it.
Stick to used cars 😉
They wanted Bellinger from us AND take Stroman’s POS contract. Surprised Hoyer didn’t fall for it. He’s dumb enough.
But that’s Slowman- instead of saying he had a knee issue and skipping a start he went with his ego and blew the game for the NYY. Hes never been a team player.
His next press conference: “I am a reliever. Any questions?”
Racist dog whistles all over the place in this one. Par for the course in this cesspool of a site.
Poor raregoku… always seeing racism when there is literally none anywhere here. What a sad existence!
“Racist dog whistles”..90% of “racism” comes from television and the phonie “people” who bemoan and pretend to fight “racism”.
His ego is more important than the team. I warned about Stroman not being a team player. He should have skipped a start. There were rumors he was fairing his knee after his last start. When asked he said he was fine. His true colors will show regardless. It’s mostly bone’s fault. He ran Sloman out there & knew he was injured but let him put up a 5 spot anyway. Worst manager in MLB history.
Stroman has definitely lost all the little value he had already.
Keeps pitching like he has been, he’ll reach his innings by 2030.
Whatever needs to be done…
Sorry but Allan ain’t winans any games!
He is better than Stroman. I can see him being effective in small sample sizes. Probably not over 30 starts.
Winans is probably getting sent back down on Wednesday. Schmidt is scheduled to make his season debut
How will Boone spin his poor numbers? “Stro is just going through a tough knee problem, but I like his stuff.”
I doubt talking negative to or about his players is something that teams look for in any manager. The player already knows he is not getting the job done. Stroman won’t get better by the manager kicking him while he’s down. The job is to help build back up his confidence.
Whoa man, Stroman
The Boone-isms kill me, man: “Just a tick off”; “ready to turn a corner”; “just a few bad pitches, but otherwise he pitched really well”; “He had good compete”; “The roof was open”; “Working through some stuff”
“It was cold so grip became an issue”… but only for Stroman.
Height doesn’t measure small cold fingers.
@Yankee Clipper..”ready to turn a corner..few bad pitches”..You almost made me lose my coffee on that one. When you get your own late night comedy show, can I be your sidekick? I can laugh and smile on cue, so that should really help us.
“Knee inflammation”= ERA Inflammation.
Not Surprised By This Move. I wish Marcus healthier and more successful days ahead!
I believe this completely.
Bye bye Marcus. You had your chance, and you failed. You’re off to purgatory for now. Should have been traded in the off-season
No takers unfortunately
Kinda mean eh? Then again hear there are a few meanies at Bronx gms
Mookie Betts nods.
Addition by subtraction
The only thing I know about Winans is that he can’t suck any worse than Stroman.
And if he does suck as bad we’re still better off since it’s not like we have to worry about his contract vesting for next season
Not a lot of love here for Marcus, poor guy.
Well obviously really don’t know the guy. But never really hear a lot of positive things about him.
I like Stro but he’s not performing well and taxing the pen.
Baseball Reference says the 2026 $18M player option is based on 140 innings in 2024. Stroman pitched over 140 innings in 2024, so unless Baseball Reference is wrong, the Yankees are on the hook for 2026
Yes, you caught a mistake by Baseball Reference.. It’s 2025 for the 140 innings option
Good for the Yankees, not so good for Marcus, no $18M and maybe even nothing but minor league offers with a spring training invite for 2026 from any team
Stro show TBD.
*on hiatus
Stro no Show.
I’d go ahead and just put him on the 60-day IL. Don’t come back until you’re beyond 100%. What’s that mean? You’re a smart guy, you’ll figure it out.
He got that injury after Giants took him behind the woodshed and clobbered him into the next farmland.
I don’t hate Marcus Stroman. There are moments he seems genuinely like-able and he has moments as a pitcher where he looks electric. But the fact is, he is clearly not a quality starter. Is he an opener? Is he a closer? Is he a set up man? What is he as a pitcher now? I don’t know. But the raw talent and moments of brilliance don’t make up for the catastrophic innings where he somehow goes from looking great to giving up five runs in a matter of moments-
I realize he does practice, he does train, he pitches to the best of his ability and he made it to the majors and has been earning well over eight figures for a long time now- so he’s a good pitcher- but the degree to which he acts like he is this jet setting fashionista vintner on social media- when he has that kind of money thanks to pitching, but he sucks at pitching….
I’m done with Stroman. I suppose I wish him the best, but we’re only like two weeks into the season and I’m over it.
Let someone else get suckered into the next 1-3 year deal for $17.5M to $20M per.
I think that ship has sailed (into enemy waters).
Does MLB allow bruised ego as an excuse to go on the IL or is New York just making up an injury?
Allan Winans is going to pitch 6 scoreless and all Yankee fans will fall in love with him
@SoCalBrave
Guy’s gonna throw a complete game no hitter.
This is the new norm for pitchers. After a bad outing just say “I’m hurt, put me on the injured list”. Then they don’t have to answer for sucking.
Are you new to baseball?
Sounds like he’s a golfer. PGATR for him.
This is a positive development for all involved. If he misses enough time to make his option unreachable he can audition for other teams once healthy. He’s probably not as bad as he’s shown so far. He should be a serviceable 5 and fly guy on some team.
Pit him on the injured list because he’s throwing batting practice.
Injury or not, there is no way they let him reach those 140 innings. He’d have to be pitching at a sub 2.00 era for them to even think of pushing him past the 140 innings.
He can stay on the shelf like an old dictionary until this December.
Yanks pitching staff in shambles….
Yankees in the market bigtime for a SP. Padres will unload Dylan Cease for a prospect haul, they’ll need three SP prospects, Ben Hess, Henry LaLane and Cam Schlittler, and Spencer Jones.
Horrible trade for the Yankees on a one year rental. Do they make this trade or a similar trade?
No, they wiped out the top pitching on other rentals. Just starting to build up new prospects. As Cease is a good pitcher, if they trade for a pitcher. Would rather go for Marlin pitcher Alacantra: has 3 years before FO
No way. Then will go to the scrap heap 1st and try spencer turnbull and maybe matt moore for a few starts and then hopefully brubaker and then will will be close to coming back
Barring a collapse and an out-of-contention status come TDL time, I think the ship to move Cease has sailed. Pads are in it to win it, and that blueprint contains Cease at the TOR.
Yeah that will change soon with Vasquez and Hart putting in two starts a week.
Pivetta doing Pivetta, one start he aces, the next he blows up, he is the most volatile of all MLB starters, cant count on him.
Cease got shelled last start, wouldnt doubt he has arm issues. Whats the word on Dharvish? It takes a healthy Dharvish and a trade for the Padres to win this season, and that trade involves one or both of Leo De Vries and Ethan Salas.
Otherwise they need to trade both King and Cease.
You lost me, miller! No trade needs to be made, no reason to move our “untouchable” two, no problem with Pivetta going 7 shutout last night, no problem waiting for Darvish to be 100%, Cronie and Merrill back in short order and yes, while early- still holding the best record in baseball. Absolutely no reason to start pushing any panic buttons, or any buttons at all! Let Schildt do his thing, it’s obviously working.
And if you suspect Cease has arm issues, why are you trying to trade him? Sus!
That’s why Cease is untouchable. If he is healthy, there is no chance that SD trades him. If he is hurt, there is no chance anyone wants him.
Padres have the best record in MLB without Yu Darvish while they’ve increased payroll over last season. Why would they trade Cease?
No wonder the Cardinals didn’t want to touch this guy in a potential Arenado trade.
I dont know, like I said they have to make one of two trades, the prospects or the starters, I dont think they can win with what they got in place, I say go for it, trade the prospects, but I can see the argument for trading the starters if you get young MLB ready starters in return.
Ben Hess and Chase Hampton for Cease is a done deal in my opinion.
I think they can ride it out until the trade deadline with Schmidt returning and seeing how Gil rehabs. Teams are not trading starting pitchers right now. Hampton is also recovering from TJS. There isn’t a ton of farm depth to trade for an impact pitcher.
After watching that first inning, it doesn’t surprise me he was put in the IL. That was pretty rough.
Cashmans failures include
Trading JP Sears for nothing in return
Signing Stroman
Sears is an excellent pitcher, all he needs is a good team to play for, he would be far greater than Stroman
Cashman failed so badly
I knew it the day they traded Sears they made a big mistake
Don’t think Sears would have made a 3 game difference in the WS. Nor would he factor into a rotation of Cole, Rodon, Fried, Gil and Schmidt. Only a yankee fan would whine about a 3.5 year old trade over someone who is at best a 4th starter on a competitive team.
That’s your opinion and I totally disagree
If the Yankees hadn’t traded Sears away and had given him a chance, they wouldn’t have signed Stroman and wasted $40 million that they could’ve spent on a better player
I’m not arguing that they got nothing out of the trade or that Stroman was a good signing but the trade happened 1.5 years before the signing. To assume that Sears was going to get all those starts while with the Yankees, particularly with the massive hr rate, is a stretch.
Think big or go home is my motto
Being born in the Bronx gives you challenges to overcome and make you always shoot for the stars
Once Strohman has his feeling hurt he turns into a useless bum. His track record proves it. If he was so good how come 3 teams (TOR/NYM/CHC) all in need of starting pitchers at the time couldn’t get rid of him fast enough and refused to resign him. Once he sees the writing on the wall instead of improving or trying he does the opposite and ironically gets some injury..He’s a cancer and is only out for himself and his gym shoe business. CUT OR TRADE HIM IMMEDIATELY..
It didn’t really work out for the Cubs because they re-signed Bellinger with that money.
Didn’t this guy have a hissy fit when told he wasn’t making the starting rotation?
It’s one thing when you can back up ego but “occasionally okay 4th-5th starter” ain’t it bub
What kind of tattoo will Stro get this time to commemorate this IL stint? Will it be on his forehead?
If only they had kept JP Sears, all this would not be happening now