The Yankees have temporarily shut down Marcus Stroman after the right-hander reported continued knee soreness following a live batting practice session on Friday. Manager Aaron Boone told the Associated Press and other media that Stroman felt some “discomfort” in his bothersome left knee, and despite “a lot of treatments on it and stuff, it just can’t kind of get over that final hump to really allow him to get to that next level on the mound.”
Monday will mark a full month since Stroman was placed on the 15-day injured list due to left knee inflammation, and Boone suggested that the injury existed well before the IL placement, contributing to Stroman’s 11.57 ERA over his first three starts of the season. Stroman received a cortisone shot to deal with the swelling and scans didn’t reveal any structural damage, yet the knee still isn’t showing much progress all these weeks later. Given this latest development, Boone didn’t have a timeline in place for when Stroman might resume throwing, let alone when the right-hander might be back in New York’s rotation.
After a month on the IL and still apparently weeks to go before returning, Stroman may already be out of time in terms of vesting his player option for the 2026 season. Stroman’s two-year, $37MM deal from the 2023-24 offseason carried a vesting clause that would allow Stroman an $18MM player option for 2026 if he pitched at least 140 innings in 2025.
Stroman tossed 154 2/3 innings of 4.31 ERA ball last season, and his relative durability over his career made that 140-inning threshold seem like quite a reasonable possibility….that is, if he were still a starting pitcher. The Yankees explored trading Stroman this past winter with an eye towards opening up payroll space, and because at the time, Stroman wasn’t projected as one of the team’s top five rotation candidates. Stroman was quite blunt about his intent on remaining in the rotation, and as it turned out, Gerrit Cole’s Tommy John surgery and Luis Gil’s long-term lat strain suddenly opened up two spots in the starting five.
Max Fried has been arguably the best pitcher in baseball this season and Carlos Rodon has been solid, but Will Warren, Clarke Schmidt (who also started the season on the IL), and Carlos Carrasco (who was outrighted off the 40-man roster earlier this week) have all struggled to varying degrees. Swingman Ryan Yarbrough got the start today and pitched well in the Yankees’ 12-2 rout of the Athletics, and Yarbrough might be the top candidate to step in for Carrasco as the fifth starter.
Gil started his throwing progression a couple of weeks ago, and is expected to be out until June or July. Assuming Stroman is also back before Gil, that will give the Yankees some time to evaluate their rotation prior to the July 31 trade deadline, though it would seem like the club will surely be in the market for at least one more arm or two.
Keep on IL. Don’t want next year to be guaranteed
I think they’re safely past that now. If they can get his knee healthy, he could be a league average arm at the backend.
There goes the ’26 option for Stro. Get well soon!
“…but not too soon!”
😉
If he could make it back in two weeks and then pitch every fifth day thru season’s end, he would have to average almost 7 innings a start to vest. Can you assume ANY pitcher will average 7?
He moved like mercury once, didn’t he? Compact cyclone, defying torque and tendon. But now the hinge rebels. The knee whispers secrets to the ligaments—secrets they weren’t meant to hear. The delay isn’t physical. It’s cosmic. Stroman is stuck in the fifth inning of a game that never happened. And until the wind shifts over Yankee Stadium at precisely 3:17 PM, he won’t return. You’ll see. They never should’ve tampered with time.
AI?
AI hallucinations?
Can I smoke whatever it is you have? That’s some some good pot!
I’m calling the Kettle black.
I read that in Rod Serling’s voice.
I went back and re-read it in Serling’s voice… here… in the Twilight Zone.
Epic re-read!
I’m convinced these words are spoken by Rust Cohle from True Detective
That was better than tripping with the Brady’s
It’s clear that you’ve mastered the continuum of time and space. And all without leaving the comfort of your keyboard. Huzzah!
This is one of the greatest comments of all time, IMO.
Awesome comment.
Oh no what ever will the Yankees do
Keep on chuggin’ and winnin’!
Is he chugging from the gloryhole?
Poor guy.
The Stro Show remains on pause, and the Yankees are doing alright without him so he can stay on the shelf as long as he needs to.
I want to know what happened to JT Brubaker. Dude broke some ribs and it’s like he’s in the witness protection program. When they got him there was talk Blake had some things in mind to tweak with him, now it seems like he’s never going to pitch in pinstripes.
The team could use Stroman, but this injury guarantees his option won’t ves,t so it’s not all bad…
Silver lining, good on ya jj!
He should use this time to learn Japanese or Korean because if he plans on pitching next it should be in Asia
Sorry but not sorry. I don’t miss #0 on my team.
Yankees have 2 very good pitchers at high A Hudson. Need to promote them soon to provide the depth they potentially will need by year’s end. Bryce Cunningham is 22 and killing it with a 1.98 ERA. Elmer Rodriguez-Cruz is 21 and has a 1.97 ERA and came over from the Red Sox. We will likely see Cam Schittler first who is in AA, older at 24, and pitching to a 2.18 ERA at the higher level. We saw him in Spring Training. Eric Reyzelman is a reliever we saw in ST too that is performing well at the highest level. Point being, Stroman’s days of pitching for the Yankees are likely over and they are getting insurance money.
Add Ben Hess and Carlos Lagrange to that mix. They definitely have some interesting young arms in the lower levels. Alan Winans will probably be the next guy up with Cookie gone.
Speaking of DL’d Yankees, DJ LeMahieu has been on rehab at Scranton and could rejoin the big club for this week’s series in Seattle.
Chucky: Yeah he’s actually hitting down on the farm. I have zero expectations, but whatever he has left is probably more than Pablo Reyes is bringing to the park. If Boone is smart (he isn’t), he’d try to work in DJ maybe 2-3 times per week. They can’t run him out there and expect him to be the starter at any position. He’s going to be a defensive downgrade due to his lack of range.
Dear god why doesn’t he just retire? He sucks! He gets angry then goes on the IL for yet another time. If he comes back someone needs to put a few more circles in the zero on his back and pray that target practice is successful.
He stinks anyway and has a bad attitude. Keep him on the DL the rest of the year with recurring vaginosis, then wave goodbye.
Posey was smart not to go after Stroman. Not only would he been a detriment to the Giants, he’d be another IL player
Take it slow stro you can pitch when Warren hits his innings limit, show other teams if you have anything left, you won’t be here next year
Take it slow stro you can pitch when
Thanks Stro for your service. Wish you well!!!