Padres: Marcus Stroman will be costly but excellent insurance

Marcus Stroman is going to get paid on the open market, but he’d be an excellent insurance option for the Padres rotation.

Marcus Stroman was one of several players who opted out of the 2020 season amid the COVID-pandemic.

“There are too many uncertainties, too many unknowns right now to go out there,” Stroman said, via NewsDay. “This is not something that I wanted. This is a collective decision from my family, for our best interests because I’m such a competitor. It was incredibly hard to finally come up with this decision.”

Now a free agent, the almost 30-year-old is looking for a new home. He spent the 2019 season split between the Blue Jays and Mets, traded at the deadline to New York for the second-half push. Combined, he posted a 3.22 ERA in 32 starts, fanning 159 batters in 184.1 innings with a career-best 7.8 K/9.

He also earned his first All-Star selection in 2019, but the former 22nd overall pick of the 2012 MLB Draft would be a great insurance option for the Padres rotation. Obviously, the insurance would be if Mike Clevinger or Dinelson Lamet aggravate their respective injuries and are out for extended periods of time.

Stroman is likely looking for a long-term deal, one that will secure his financial future as he enters the second half of his career. He’s not your prototypical pitcher, standing at 5-foot-7 and 180 pounds.

While he features six pitches in his arsenal, he’s primarily a four-pitch guy, with a devastating slider that yielded a .168 average and 35.3 whiff percentage in 2019. It’ll be interesting to see how the pandemic impacts free agency if players take more one-year deals until things normalize.

Perhaps, in that scenario, he’s the perfect fit for the Padres until the likes of MacKenzie Gore and Luis Patino are ready for full-time roles. Anyway, food for thought. Happy Tuesday.