Marcus Stroman's second spring training with the New York Yankees didn't get off to the start that anyone was hoping for. The team spent the back half of its offseason making very clear that it didn't have a place for Stroman in its starting rotation in 2025 and would love to send him elsewhere. But a trade never materialized, and after weeks of being told that he was overpaid and unwanted, Stroman reported to Tampa as a pretty unhappy camper — showing up two days later than all of New York's other pitchers and almost immediately putting the team on blast in the media.
So, after all that, which pitcher will be the first to take the mound for the team in an actual game? Why, Stroman, of course, whom Aaron Boone announced would start the Yankees' spring training opener against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday afternoon. Despite all the discord between player and team right now, and despite the fact that Stroman has yet to face hitters since arriving in camp.
Boone insisted that this was all normal, that the righty's throwing schedule just lined up this way.
“His bullpens have been a lot of volume and pretty intense,” Boone told the New York Post. “He’s ready to roll."
Really, though, we know what's actually going on here: The Yankees can't afford to miss any possible chance to show 29 other teams around the league that Stroman is a desirable trade target.
For more news and rumors, check out MLB Insider Robert Murray’s work on The Baseball Insiders podcast, subscribe to The Moonshot, our weekly MLB newsletter, and join the discord to get the inside scoop during the MLB offseason.
Yankees determined to give Marcus Stroman every chance to prove he's worth trading for
There were plenty of other options to throw the first inning on Friday, even allowing for the fact that Clarke Schmidt's debut has been delayed by a balky back. But the Yankees are still determined to send Stroman elsewhere before Opening Day, if only to remove a potential source of distraction from the clubhouse; the righty simply isn't in New York's best starting five at this point, and while he's nice to have as an insurance policy, he doesn't make sense in the bullpen and the team can't stash him at Triple-A.
Brian Cashman (and Stroman's own ineffectiveness) have boxed the team into a corner in which it'll have to find some way to deal him, even if it means attaching a prospect to him or eating some of the $18.5 million he's owed in 2025. In order to get that done, though, New York needs Stroman to pitch early, often and well, at least well enough to convince other prospective teams that he'd be an upgrade on the several other veteran starters who are available for far cheaper at this point in the offseason.
The Yankees need that process to start as soon as possible, so why wait? Give Stroman the first opportunity to pitch, and give him as many as you can after that too. Who knows, maybe he's determined to prove everyone wrong and looks like a whole new pitcher.