Free Agent Poll: Marcus Stroman

We used this idea last year. The idea is to go through some of the top free agents, use the contract FanGraphs suggests they will get and have a poll asking if we would like to sign him for that amount.

Keith Law has Marcus 5th. Ben Clemens 8th.

We know about Marcus. Ground ball pitcher. After sitting out 2020, Stroman had one of the best seasons of his career in 2021. He’s been consistently good in his seven-year MLB career, minus a poor 2018 season.

Among other things, Law said:

He’s incredibly athletic and seems able to make adjustments as well as any pitcher in baseball, like adding an entirely new pitch in his age-30 season. I think he’s the best bet among free-agent starters this year, with a combination of upside and floor that puts him ahead of anyone else on the list.

Ben:

Combine a new penchant for missing bats and his normal grounder-focused game, and you have a recipe for success. He also made 33 starts, the rare pitcher with a durable 2021 season. It might sound strange that a pitcher with a below-average strikeout rate is a hot commodity in this era of missing bats and taking names, but Stroman does everything else so well that it hardly matters. If he takes another step forward with his splitter in his second year throwing it, there’s even more upside — and we’re already talking about a workhorse with a mid-3.00s ERA.

He also has a personality that puts some people off, and I’m sure if I were in a locker room with him, I’d want to be at the opposite end. But, from a distance, I kind of like players to have a personality. Let the kids play.

Coming into his age 31 season, Ben figures him to get four years at $25 million per for $100 million. I guess I’d have concerns about his being able to stay at this level into his mid-30s, but he is smart and has shown an ability to adjust.