Marcus Stroman calls out Toronto Blue Jays after losing arbitration case
By Austin Owens
Marcus Stroman decided to take to Twitter, again, to share his frustration with the Toronto Blue Jays after losing his arbitration case.
Pitchers and catchers have officially reported to Spring Training for the Toronto Blue Jays and the rest of MLB, with position players following them in the coming days.
There’s one thing to wrap up before baseball gets underway once again: arbitration.
The Blue Jays and starting pitcher Marcus Stroman have been at odds all offseason over roughly $400,000.
The culmination of these negotiations came at Stroman’s hearing on Thursday. Unfortunately for the Jays starter, it’s not the outcome he had hoped for.
Stroman filed for $6.9 million, while Toronto filed for $6.5 million.
The arbitrator sided with the club and Stroman was none too impressed about it, or the way in which the club handled the hearing. He took to social media to air his displeasure.
Later in the day, Blue Jays GM Ross Atkins was asked about Stroman’s tweet and arbitration case.
Ross Atkins on Stroman: “Arbitration is a tough process. What I can tell you is we remain objective in arbitration and we also use outside resources. It impacts players in different ways.
— Scott Mitchell (@ScottyMitchTSN) February 15, 2018
“We’ll focus mostly on how we can help him be the best pitcher he can be.”#BlueJays
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This isn’t the first time Stroman has openly bashed the Jays on social media in his career. It’s not even the first time this offseason it’s happened.
Stroman notoriously called out the team for not informing him of their intention to let Ryan Goins — a close friend of his — walk to free agency.
In the case of arbitration, I’m sure Stroman knows as well as anyone that teams will say whatever they have to in order to win.
He must have felt that they went over the edge with their criticism of his resume, to have a reaction like this.
This is another instance that Stroman will add to the “HDMH”, chip-on-your-shoulder persona that has made him so popular amongst fans.
After all was said and done, Stroman did send out one last tweet to express his love for the Jays and Canada as a whole
Just being real. Not mad at all. I’m aware of the business. Just opens your eyes going through the arbitration process. Second time going through it. Still love my team and the entire country of Canada. More upset that I had to fly to AZ and miss my Monday workout. Lol
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) February 15, 2018
The question now is, where do the team and Stroman stand?
The 26-year-old is known to be fiery. So when he says “The negative things said against me, by my own team, will never leave my mind,” it’s hard to think that it won’t be an awkward first workout this week.
The situation will definitely be worth keeping an eye on going forward. There will obviously be interest league-wide for the talented starter, who finished eighth in AL Cy-Young voting and won a Gold Glove in 2017.
Would the Jays trade one of their best, young assets? It’s hard to see that happening. But not out of the realm of possibility.
Next: Jays sign Jaime Garcia to a one-year contract
Stroman is under team control until 2021, when he can enter free agency. It’s hard to say where he and the team are at, relationship-wise, after today. We’ll get a better idea as the season progresses.