It's official: Cubs land elite pitcher Marcus Stroman |
CHICAGO – The Chicago Cubs today agreed to terms on a three-year major league contract with right-handed pitcher Marcus Stroman. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Stroman, 30, posted a 3.02 ERA (60 ER/179.0 IP) with a 10-13 record in 33 starts (tied for the most in the majors) for the Mets in 2021, walking 44 with 158 strikeouts. He set career bests in ERA, WHIP (1.15), strikeout rate (21.6 percent) and walk rate (6.0 percent). Stroman’s 3.02 ERA was eighth in the N.L. and ninth in the majors. He allowed 0.86 home runs per 9.0 innings, sixth in the N.L. and was 10th with 2.21 walks per 9.0 innings. His 179.0 innings ranked 16th in the N.L. despite more than a quarter of his starts coming in seven-inning doubleheader games. Selected by Toronto in the first round (22nd overall) of the 2012 Draft out of Duke University, Stroman is 61-60 with a 3.63 ERA (415 ER/1,028.1 IP) in 179 career games, all but six as a starter, with the Blue Jays (2014-19) and Mets (2019, 2021). He has made 30-or-more starts in four of the five full seasons since 2016, tied for the most such campaigns in the majors. Since making his major league debut in 2014, Stroman has allowed 0.83 home runs per 9.0 innings, the fourth-lowest rate among all pitchers with at least 170 starts in that span. His 58.2-percent ground ball rate ranks second-highest in that stretch, surpassed only by Clayton Kershaw (59.6). Stroman earned a Rawlings Gold Glove in 2017 with the Blue Jays and finished eighth in the A.L. Cy Young vote, going 13-10 with a 3.09 ERA (69 ER/201.0 IP) while reaching the 200-inning mark for the second-straight campaign. Prior to that season, he was named the World Baseball Classic MVP after he took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of the Championship Game for Team USA in a victory over Puerto Rico. After starting the 2019 season with Toronto and being named to the A.L. All-Star Team, Stroman was traded to the Mets, July 28 of that year in a three-player deal. He combined to post a 3.22 ERA (66 ER/184.1 IP) with a 10-13 record in 32 starts that year before he elected to opt out of the 2020 season. Starting in 2019, Stroman’s 3.12 ERA (126 ER/363.1 IP) ranks seventh in the majors (min. 60 GS). Off the field, Stroman created the HDMH (Height Doesn’t Measure Heart) Foundation, created to inspire and encourage society, while motivating youth to overcome adversity and chase their dreams. During the COVID shutdown, the Foundation supported the Food Bank For New York City, the city’s leading hunger-relief organization, and Long Island Cares, the local food banks in Long Island, providing hunger assistance in both Nassau and Suffolk County. The #Cubs today agreed to terms on a three-year major league contract with RHP Marcus Stroman. pic.twitter.com/6bkko55shP
