4 pitchers Rangers should trade for after deGrom surgery, ranked worst to best
By Josh Wilson
Pitchers for Rangers to trade for: Marcus Stroman from Cubs
Marcus Stroman has a strong desire to keep playing at Wrigley Field for the Cubs, but the inevitable outcome might be for Chicago to trade him. For whatever reason — most will point to manager David Ross — the Cubs’ pivot to competition has not exactly gone to plan this season.
The additions of shortstop Dansby Swanson and pitcher Jameson Taillon haven’t moved the needle. Chicago finds itself toward the bottom of one of the league’s more difficult divisions, and it’s a lot easier to see a team like the Cardinals moving up the ranks than the Cubs in 2023.
With that in mind, Chicago might be forced to look for trades to make on its expiring, attractive player deals in order to get some assets to help fuel its continued return to competition.
Stroman, while a fan favorite and a player that would be kept in town ideally, might be an inevitable trade to make. Stroman is pitching one of the best years of his career and is on an expiring deal. He’s the best trade bait they have.
For Chicago, the calculus also has to consider Stroman’s age. A decline is surely in front of him, and committing an extension he wants that rewards him enough to keep his interest in Wrigley might not be wise given his best baseball might just be behind him.
But that trepidation is the Rangers’ gain. They don’t need Stroman to be good for the next several years, they need him to be good for this year. And this year he has been. His 2.39 ERA/3.49 FIP are some of the best results of his career. He’s given up just eight barreled balls in total this year with a solid ground ball rate.
Stroman uses a heavily varied arsenal with six pitches, none that are used less than five percent of the time. He doesn’t necessarily fit the archetype of a standard starting pitcher but he could be a strong, complicated (for opposing batters) addition to the mix of the Rangers rotation.