IS MARCUS STROMAN THE MOST DISLIKED BLUE JAY OF ALL TIME?

The one-time blue chip prospect has worn out his welcome in New York, again.

Marcus Stroman was a member of the Blue Jays from 2014 to 2019.

Disruptive, narcissistic and confrontational. A pretty good pitcher, too.

That’s how I would describe Marcus Stroman, the former Blue Jay who was released by the New York Yankees the other day, possibly ending his checkered major league career.

“The Stro Show”, is now 34. He isn’t that much different from the cocky 23-year-old who arrived in Toronto with a chip on his shoulder bigger than the Redwood Forest. For a while, he was thought to be the next Dave Stieb/Pat Hentgen/Roy Halladay all rolled into one. Instead, he turned out to be a decent to pretty good pitcher, who had a couple of all-star seasons, and managed to win a Gold Glove. Disappointing, I would say, for someone who had such high expectations of himself and for the fans who followed him.

Stroman was a lightning rod for controversy right from the get-go. He was suspended for five games as a rookie after throwing at the head of Baltimore’s Caleb Joseph. He had a mostly adversarial relationship with sports reporters and blocked many of them on social media. He always tried to dictate the narrative and occasionally took to yelling at reporters for asking “irrelevant” questions. He yelled at teammates and tried to show up opponents. His loud and often abrasive personality turned many of his teammates off, especially after he called them “fucking awful” and “fucking terrible” after one of his losses. He tried to walk the comments back on social media, but the damage was done. During spring training of 2019, he was quick to call out Blue Jays President Mark Shapiro and GM Ross Atkins when he didn’t feel the club was spending enough to compete with the Yankees and Red Sox. He may even have been the guy to first use the term “Shatkins” when describing the management team.

For all the hate foisted upon the front office after the Alex Anthopoulos era, it was Stroman who was the catalyst. In 2018, he was openly critical of management for allowing 36-year-old Jose Bautista to become a free agent, even though everybody knew he was done, having hit just .203 the year before.

Stroman always seemed to want to stick it those who didn’t think he could succeed. Maybe it was because of his diminutive size (5’8”) and his catchphrase “Height doesn’t measure heart” (HDMH), which helped the Stroman brand and cast him as the ultimate underdog. His father Earl, a cop on Long Island, N.Y., told Marcus at an early age to make his detractors “eat their words” after being put down so often because of his size. This is why Stroman always had that macho swagger and was often at odds with somebody. He was trying to prove people wrong. And while he pitched better than almost any other undersized pitcher except for 5’6” Bobby Shantz (who turns 100 next month), Stroman never reached his potential. His career numbers back that up: 90-87 with a 3.79 ERA. His WHIP was 1.282 and he struck out just over 7 batters per nine innings. His career WAR is 21.5, which puts him the same company as journeymen Julio Teheran and Andy Ashby. A slightly above-average pitcher who had a decent career and made a couple of all-star teams. Nothing more. Like I said, a “journeyman”.

As a youngster, Stroman was part of those exciting 2015 and 2016 Blue Jay teams that reached the post-season. He started five playoff games for those teams, but injuries cut short his production. The freak knee injury during 2015 spring training was thought to be a season-ending blow, but Stroman made a remarkable recovery and re-joined the club in September, which only energized the Stroman brand and made the fans love him even more. It was hoped that he would be the Jays number one starter for the next five years or so, but that didn’t work out, and when the time came to negotiate a new contract, the ballclub wasn’t interested. Instead, they traded him at the 2019 deadline to the Mets for pitchers Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods-Richardson, who eventually went to Minnesota in the Jose Berrios deal.

In three full seasons with the Jays, and parts of three others, Stroman managed a 47-45 record with a 3.76 ERA. Upon leaving town, he put out this tweet, which was quickly deleted.

“This organization will never build a team around this young talent”.

He was wrong. They’ve built a pretty good team.

Now that he’s gone and may never pitch again, how should we remember Marcus Stroman? Reading some comments from Jays fans, I happened upon the word “toxic” more often than I expected. His attitude, it seems, rubbed a lot of fans, players and media the wrong way. Even when he returned to Toronto in 2022 as a member of the Cubs and received a nice video tribute and ovation from the fans, many were still unsure as to how they felt about Stroman.

How does he rank among the all-time least favourite Blue Jays? Right up there, if you ask me. After Stroman, here are my top three.

1) Yunel Escobar. He was a decent shortstop who, in 2012, was caught with a phrase written on his eye black, a Spanish interpretation of a homophobic slur. “Tu ere maricon” means “You’re a faggot”. Escobar and his Spanish-speaking teammates used it all the time, he said, after apologizing for the slur. He was suspended for three games and had to donate his pay to two gay rights organizations. He was traded at seasons end in a huge 12 player swap with the Miami Marlins.

2) Anthony Bass. This knucklehead may be best known for complaining on social media that his pregnant wife had to clean up their kid’s mess on an American Airlines flight. But he was notorious for another incident, having reposted a video in 2023 calling for a boycott of LBGTQ-friendly companies. Bass called Target and Bud Light “evil” and “demonic” for being supportive of those communities. He was released just hours before he was set to catch a ceremonial first pitch to kick off the team’s Pride Weekend. A putz if there ever was one.

3) Roberto Osuna. The guy was a great pitcher but, unfortunately, his treatment of women, specifically his partner, was horrifying. In May of 2018, Osuna was charged with domestic assault. He was suspended for 75 games by Major League Baseball for violating its domestic violence policy. The charges were dropped when the woman refused to travel from Mexico to Toronto to testify. Osuna agreed to a peace bond and was traded to the Houston Astros. Upon his return to Toronto, he was booed by Blue Jays fans when he appeared in relief.

Dishonourable mention goes to Shea Hildebrand, Alex Rios, Brett Lawrie and Yangervis Solarte, all of whom wore out their welcome in Toronto by saying or doing stupid things. The fans don’t forget. Now, you can add Marcus Stroman to that list.

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The aforementioned Caleb Joseph did something rare on a recent Blue Jays telecast: He called out Vladdy Guerrero for not hustling on the bases. With two outs and Vladdy at first base, Bo Bichette hit a high fly ball into the sun. Vladdy jogged around the bases, and when the ball dropped fair, he was standing on third instead of scoring the tying run. Even Little Leaguers know that with two outs, you run hard as soon as the ball is hit. Vladdy should know better, and good on Caleb for pointing that out. We need more analysis like that.