Despite the fact that the New York Yankees lost the Toronto Blue Jays on Friday afternoon in the home opener 3–0, they enjoyed a fantastic performance from Marcus Stroman, their 32-year-old new starting pitcher.
After rejecting Blake Snell‘s contract proposal, the Yankees quickly pivoted to Stroman several months ago, who was eager to join the Yankees and offer them a quality arm in the rotation. He signed a two-year, $37-million deal with a 2026 vesting option. His 2025 season becomes a player option with 140 innings pitched, and Stroman is already on pace after two starts.
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Yankees Are Getting Great Starts From Marcus Stroman
Over 12 innings to open the season, Stroman hasn’t given up a run, collecting 7.50 strikeouts per nine, a 72.7% left-on-base rate, and a 48.5% ground ball rate. His velocity is about 1 mph less than it was in 2023, but he is still generating fantastic movement on his pitches and utilizing deception in his favor.
Stroman utilizes a sinker, cutter, slurve, and split-finger fastball. This year, his sinker has been fantastic, throwing it 38.6% of the time and producing a .091 batting average against.
However, he’s utilizing a newfound cutter far more frequently, throwing it at 36.6% compared to just 9.5% last season. It’s produced a .167 batting average with a 55.6% whiff rate and a 25% put-away rate. In fact, out of the four hits he’s given up over 12 innings, two of them have come using his four-seam fastball and slider, which he’s only thrown a combined five times this season.
The Yankees have clearly tweaked Stroman’s pitch usage, and it is paying off in dividends. At just $18.5 million per season, the Yankees are receiving tremendous value and should be excited about his upside this year.