On a day where Blue Jays nation and the baseball community nation mourned the loss of their former ace Roy Halladay, the team’s current ace helped restore some happiness for Jays fans by winning his first career Gold Glove Award.
Marcus Stroman was named the 2017 pitching recipient of the American League Gold Glove.
It's been quite the 24 hours for the Jays pitcher in terms of recognition: he was named the cover athlete for the Canadian version of MLB The Show 18 on Monday, and on Tuesday night, the 26-year-old edged Tampa right-hander Alex Cobb and Red Sox ace Chris Sale for the award.
He became the 10th Blue Jay in team history to win a Gold Glove, and the first since R.A. Dickey took home the honours in 2013.
Stroman finished with the second highest amount of defensive runs saved at five with a .979 fielding percentage and only one error on the season. Stroman finished with a 13-9 record, and a career-low 3.09 ERA with 164 strikeouts in 201 innings thrown.
In what was a down year for the Blue Jays, the emergence of Stroman becoming the face of the Blue Jays pitching staff was one of the few positive takeaways. The native of Medford, New York was named the MVP of the 2017 World Baseball Classic and topped 200 innings for the second straight season.
