The Marcus Stroman sweepstakes at this year’s trade deadline resulted in a mild stunner, when the Jays ace was sent to the New York Mets instead of the Yankees as most reports had indicated was likely.
In a wide-reaching profile on Yahoo! Sports, Yankees GM Brian Cashman confirms that the team was interested, but they weren’t willing to part with highly touted young outfielder Clint Frazier to make a trade happen. According to Cashman, the Yankees would’ve most likely used Stroman as a bullpen arm in the postseason, and didn’t think he’d be a “difference-maker.”
Predictably, Stroman was less than pleased with Cashman’s comments. He fired back with a stats comparison on Twitter — himself against the Yankees rotation.
His recent retweets paint a similar picture, making a statistical argument in favour of Stroman.
Not all of these are necessarily as clear-cut as the stats may make it seem — for one, 2018 All-Star Luis Severino only recently made his 2019 debut after returning from injury. It’s one thing to argue Stroman against each individual member of the Yankees rotation, though, and another entirely to argue he wouldn’t at least be a difference-maker within that rotation.
Of course, knowing Stroman, he lives for the chance to prove someone wrong. The Yankees have already locked up their AL East title while the Mets are on the brink of the playoff race, but we don’t think Stro will let this one drop anytime soon.
