This will be Marcus Stroman’s first full season in the National League as he was acquired by the New York Mets during last season from the Blue Jays. Here are two props available to wager at Mybookie on Stroman’s 2020 MLB season – assuming there is one – and an overview.
Marcus Stroman MLB Awards Odds & Analysis For 2020 Season
- Most wins of any pitcher: Stroman is a long shot at +7500
- NL Cy Young Award
A couple of days before last July’s MLB Trade Deadline, the New York Mets made a surprising deal in acquiring Toronto Blue Jays ace Marcus Stroman in exchange for pitching prospects Anthony Kay and Simeon Woods Richardson. The Mets already were pretty deep in pitching and barely on the fringes of a wild-card race so it seemed odd to give up two of their top pitching prospects for Stroman, who can become a free agent after the 2020 season. Plus, Stroman is a ground-ball pitcher (56.3% ground-ball rate last year) and statistically the Mets had one of the worst defensive infields in the majors in 2019.
Kay is a former first-round pick by way of the University of Connecticut. Though he was drafted in 2016, he didn’t debut until 2018 because of Tommy John surgery. Kay could be a major-leaguer this year. Woods-Richardson, on the other hand, is years away from reaching the majors. He was one of the youngest draftees in the Class of 2018.
Marcus Stroman went 4-2 with a 3.77 ERA (25 earned runs/59.2 innings) in 11 starts with the Mets and overall was 10-13 with a 3.22 ERA (66 earned runs/184.1 innings) in 32 starts with Toronto and New York. He was a member of the AL All-Star game before being dealt. The groundball-heavy pitcher doesn’t strike out a ton of batters. He had 159 strikeouts and 58 walks in 181.1 innings last year, but unlike most starters he doesn’t give up a ton of homers and allowed just 18.
Since the beginning of the 2017 season, only seven pitchers in Major League Baseball have recorded two years in which they threw at least 180 innings and sported an ERA+ of 135 or better. With pitchers starting with a league-average score of 100, the score is then adjusted based on how much better (or worse) it is compared to the league average. Stroman is seventh on the list, posting an ERA+ of 145 (201 IP) in 2017 and 136 (184.1 IP) in 2019.
Stroman was acquired in large part by the Mets as insurance against Zack Wheeler leaving through free agency. And in December 2019, Wheeler signed a five-year contract with the Phillies worth $118 million. Stroman saw his importance to the rotation increase following Noah Syndergaard’s season-ending Tommy John surgery last month. He successfully underwent the procedure on March 26, leaving the Mets’ rotation with an obvious void.
This offseason Stroman and the Mets agreed on a one-year, $12 million deal to avoid arbitration. Nice raise of $7.4 million from 2019. Working on the changeup was Stroman’s priority this spring before the shutdown.
“He’s working really hard on it, but I think he’s got pitches for righties or lefties,” Mets manager Luis Rojas said. “He’s got separation of velocity in his slider and his cutter. He calls them both sliders, but there’s one that is more like a cutter, just a little harder.”
Stroman actually was in the news this week after NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was fired from Chip Ganassi Racing for using a racial slur during a virtual race over the weekend. Larson did apologize for his actions but Stroman wasn’t happy. Just hours before Larson was fired, Stroman wrote on Twitter that Larson’s apology for using the racial slur “doesn’t matter.” The pitcher then challenged the NASCAR driver to an MMA fight because Larson “needs his ass beat.” Stroman added that he doesn’t believe Larson should ever be allowed to race again in NASCAR.
