It’s rare that a Major League Baseball player’s trade value increase while he’s unable to play, but that’s exactly the case with New York Yankees All-Star starting pitcher Marcus Stroman, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today.
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“Yankees starter Marcus Stroman’s trade value is actually increasing by being on the injured list,” Nightengale wrote. “Now that he’s sidelined, he won’t be able to automatically exercise his player option since he’ll fall short of 140 innings.”
While Stroman generated interest from several teams over the offseason, Nightengale reported that teams didn’t want to add him with the possibility of him exercising a player option for 2026.
“There were several teams that had interest in Stroman during the winter but balked at the possibility of being on the hook for $18 million in 2026,” Nightengale wrote.
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Stroman has been out since April 11 with a left knee injury. In just three starts, the right-hander went 0-1 with an 11.57 ERA. Manager Aaron Boone, however, believes his injury led to his struggles.
“Certainly that last start, I think he just couldn’t really step on that front side like he needed to,” Boone said. “I talk about how these guys are like race cars, and one little thing off and it can affect just that last level of command or that last level of extra stuff that you need. So we’ll continue to try to get him where we need to.”
Stroman has no timetable to return for now, but it’s clear he won’t get to the 140 innings threshold at the end of the year. Thus, he’ll have much more value come the July deadline, when teams will just be on the hook for the remainder of the $18.5 million he’s owed this season.
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Stroman, 34, has played with four teams — the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs and Yankees — over the course of his 11-year career. He was an All-Star twice in his career in 2019 and 2023. He joined the Yankees ahead of the 2024 season on a two-year, $37 million deal, and has gone 10-10 with a 4.72 ERA in New York.
Across 264 career games, Stroman has gone 87-86 with a 3.77 ERA over 1,467.2 innings pitched.
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