Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman receives encouraging prognosis

Toronto Blue Jays Manager John Gibbons provided an encouraging prognosis in regards to Marcus Stroman during his media scrum in Dunedin this morning.

The Manager indicated that Marcus Stroman will begin throwing in a few days and all parties involved have a tentative return date for the hurler however that will not be made public. Gibbons reiterated that the doctors feel confident that the shoulder inflammation will not be an issue again once Stroman overcomes this hurdle.

The Blue Jays shut Stroman down approximately a week ago with inflammation in his right shoulder, a setback that may jeopardize his Opening Day start versus the New York Yankees on March 29th in Toronto.

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Stroman is fresh off a career year and will be looked upon as a vital cog if the Blue Jays are going to climb out of the AL East doldrums in 2018. Last season Stroman finished 8th in Cy Young voting with a 3.09 earned run average and a 1.308 WHIP over 201 innings of work. He also finished the campaign with a 5.8 WAR, that mark bested his three previous seasons put together.

The Jays were second in the majors last season in DL trips and were forced to utilize 14 different starting pitchers throughout 2017, a trend that hopefully not repeat itself. Thus far Aaron Sanchez and Devon Travis appear healthy and poised to overcome their respective injury issues from a year ago.

Thus far this spring the Jays have had to deal with some minor injury ailments including Troy Tulowitzki who is tabbed to begin the season on the DL with heel spurs. The likes of Josh Donaldson (Hanging Shoulder), Randal Grichuk (Sprained Wrist), Steve Pearce (Leg Cramps) and Carlos Ramirez (Soreness) have all had their own minor hurdles to overcome this spring but they all should be healthy when the team heads north in three weeks.

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Hopefully, the Blue Jays will eventually shed some light on Stroman’s proposed timetable but at least for now we know the prognosis is good and should not have any lasting effects on the hurlers chance of repeating his success in 2018.