Marcus Stroman hoping to return for Opening Day

Blue Jays ace Marcus Stroman had an MRI done Tuesday morning and showed inflammation in his right shoulder, but no structural damage at the moment.

The 26-year-old right-handed starter will throw again in the next three to five days, but the expectation from Stroman is that he’ll be back by the time the regular season starts. The good news is that there aren’t any long-time problems with his throwing shoulder as the results came back clean, according to this AP report on ESPN.

"“Super clean, so I was happy with that,” Stroman said. “Just a bit of inflammation. It’s something that I could probably get through if I needed to get through it. This is something that I rather deal with now, get it out now rather than something that lingers throughout the year.”"

Stroman was electric in 2017, posting a 3.09 ERA while striking out 164 and only walking 64, Stroman rebounded nicely from a trying 2016 season well.

Stroman made headlines a few weeks ago after losing his arbitration case with the Blue Jays and MLB. The Blue Jays ace will make $6.5 million instead of the $6.9 million he requested (which doesn’t seem like much when you factor in he received a $3 million raise). However, Stroman took Twitter to voice his thoughts.

The bad news is that Stroman has yet to pitch in a game, as the spring training schedule enters its first full week of games, which doesn’t bode well for his chances of returning to the team on time and in game-shape.

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Without Stroman, the Blue Jays rotation is somewhat of a mess, with J.A. Happ, Aaron Sanchez, Marco Estrada, and Jamie Garcia left to carry the team on the mound. Hopefully, Stroman can make a speedy recovery and return in time to get a game or two in this spring before the season starts.