Marcus Stroman arrived at Yankees camp after missing the first two days of spring training workouts, and he made it clear what he believes his role should be as New York not-so-secretly shops the veteran righty and his $18 million salary.
“I’m a starter,” Stroman repeated when asked if he would be willing to take on a relief role for the Yanks in 2025. “I’m a starter. We’ll see how it plays out. I’m a starter. I won’t pitch in the bullpen. I’m a starter.”
Stroman is not in the Yankees’ current rotation plans after New York signed Max Fried, as Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Luis Gil, and Clarke Schmidt will likely be the team’s Opening Day rotation. Stroman scoffed at the idea that his declaration was a message to Brian Cashman that the GM should trade him if he’s not going to be used as a starter, but maintained that a relief role is not what he was signed to do.
“I’m a starter. That's me making the most basic, brief statement,” Stroman said. “I’m a starter my entire career. Go look at the numbers. How many people can stay healthy and do it 30-plus starts year after year. Especially after being one they said could never do it at my size. I'm a starter.”
Stroman was used out of the bullpen in the playoffs last year, and he made it clear on Friday that he had no issue taking on that role in October, when it’s all hands on deck regardless of a player’s typical workload. But the two-time All-Star does not want to be coming out of the bullpen, but he wouldn’t say how he would react if that’s the role the Yanks give him come Opening Day.
“I haven’t thought about tomorrow…it’s hard for me to even look past to a moment,” Stroman said. “There’s so many unpredictables that can happen up to that point.”
Aaron Boone also wouldn’t look ahead when reacting to Stroman’s declaration that he is a starting pitcher and will not come on in relief.
“You're getting way ahead of this thing,” Boone said. “We're building him up to be a starting pitcher. As we go when things come up, we'll address them.”