Despite a miserable first season with the New York Yankees and his own GM's repeated attempts to trade him over the winter, Marcus Stroman spent all of spring training telling anyone who would listen that he expected to be a starter in 2025. And against all odds, he got his wish: Early injuries to both Gerrit Cole and Luis Gil put the Yankees' rotation into crisis mode, and forced the team to rely on Stroman to try and plug the leak.
Stroman, however, was unable to take advantage of that golden opportunity, giving up 12 earned runs in just 9.1 innings across his first three starts of the year before being sidelined by a knee injury. And now it looks like he might not get another one: Stroman remains on the IL without a timetable for return, and thanks to Will Warren's sudden emergence, a starting spot probably won't be waiting for him whenever he does get back.
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Marcus Stroman could find himself without a rotation spot thanks to Will Warren's emergence
It took Warren a little while to get his feet under him at the big-league level, but lately he's been proving just why the Yankees had so much faith in him in the first place. The former top prospect has been dialed all the way in over his last three starts, with a 1.50 ERA and 26 strikeouts across 18 innings — including 10 Ks in 5.2 shutout frames in a win over the Texas Rangers on Tuesday night.
This is the pitcher that Warren's underlying metrics always suggested that he could become, and unless he regresses badly, it's hard to imagine New York bumping him from the rotation any time soon. That creates some awkward math for Stroman: Max Fried, Carlos Rodon and Clarke Schmidt are set in stone, and s Gil is set to begin a throwing program soon as he eyes a return around the All-Star break.
Maybe Stroman is able to come back from his injury before then and lock down the fifth spot behind Warren, but that would require a pretty miraculous recovery from knee discomfort that the team still can't get a handle on. And even if he does, the way he was pitching was hardly worthy of a rotation spot, especially with Ryan Yarbrough, Allan Winans and the recovering JT Brubaker all looming as potential depth options. Stroman's contract is such that the Yankees are likely stuck with him for the remainder of this season, but this team has shown too high a ceiling to afford to settle with Stroman every fifth day; Warren has taken his lunch, and New York shouldn't look back.