Blue Jays pitcher Marcus Stroman gets the green light

I pity the fool that doubts Marcus Stoman.

Not that the Blue Jays need another shot in the arm after the past two weeks, but the potential return of pitcher Stroman to the club in September is slowly moving from wild impossibility towards something more real. Stroman tweeted out earlier this afternoon that he’d visited with the renowned Dr. James Andrews, and has far exceeded any expected recovery times. 


While we should still approach the situation with caution and keep expectations very low until we see Stroman take the mound in his rehab assignment later this month, this is a critical first hurdle to clear. If the Blue Jays medical staff agrees with the assessment of Dr. Andrews and are comfortable with the progression of his knee going forward, this leaves his on-field performance as the only challenge remaining. Upon seeing the tweet, we asked Marcus if this meant he’d been given the “green light”.

There you have it, from the man himself! Anyone following Stroman on Twitter or Instagram over the summer has seen him move through his recovery at a pace that, quite frankly, has been astonishing. A torn ACL simply isn’t an injury that typically sees such a rapid recovery pace, but Stroman has achieved it up until this point. Furthermore, he did it all while completing his degree at Duke University.

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Many fans have asked if Stroman has time to return to the starting rotation, especially given the recent struggles of Drew Hutchison in the fifth spot. That type of return would take additional time, however, and if the Blue Jays are to reach the playoffs, they may be able to go without the fifth starter entirely. Stroman’s path to the bullpen, although still an uphill climb, remains the shorter path back to the Major Leagues.

His arsenal on the mound should lend itself well to relief work, which is what many scouts projected him doing when he came out of Duke University. Something about being too short to succeed as a starter? Better luck with your next evaluation, I suppose.

We’ll have all the Strotember coverage you need here over the next month with the young righty beginning his journey back to the bigs in Florida. If the past two weeks have taught us anything, it’s that everything is possible in Toronto.

Next: What qualifies as success for 2015 Blue Jays?

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