Blue Jays Mid-Term Report Card: Marcus Stroman

After dealing with shoulder fatigue for the majority of the season, Marcus Stroman’s season hasn’t gone as planned up to this point in the 2018 campaign.

Grade: D+

After pitching to a 13-9 record last season, 3.09 ERA, and a Gold Glove, expectations were high for Stroman coming into 2018. After 12 starts this season, Marcus Stroman has pitched to a disappointing 2-7 record and 5.86 ERA.

After Stroman encountered that he had right shoulder fatigue in Spring Training, he was supposed to be good to go for the regular season. Stroman made his season debut in the fourth game of the season against the New York Yankees, where he pitched 5 strong innings. All was good, until May. After a rough start to the season, the Blue Jays front office thought something was off with Stroman. After testing and evaluation, Stroman was diagnosed with shoulder fatigue in his right arm once again. He was then placed on the disabled list.

Stroman missed over a month but made a strong return. In his 1^st start back, Stroman pitched against Mike Trout and the Angels. Once again pitching 5 strong innings, but left in a tie game to pick up the no-decision. It wasn’t until his next start, his 9^th of the season, where he picked up his 1^st win of the season against the Detroit Tigers. Two consecutive good starts? Stroman was back. Or, people thought he was back.

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After two straight good starts, Stroman had a brutal start against Jose Bautista and the Mets. Pitching just 4.2 innings, Stroman gave up 6 hits, 6 runs, all of them earned, and walked an uncharacteristically high number of 4 batters that game. After that start, he had a great start, going 7 strong against the Braves in Atlanta. And then once again had a bad start yesterday at Fenway.

Next: Blue Jays: Marcus Stroman harshly disses team’s performance

This back and forth, good start bad start thing you’re seeing from Stroman, isn’t the real Stroman. There’s no doubt in my mind that he can return to his Gold Glove-caliber self, and soon. As Stroman says; Never Panic, Just Manage.