Toronto Blue Jays: Marcus Stroman thinking long-term

Despite being frustrated with the outcome of his arbitration case, Marcus Stroman is interesting in a multi-year extension with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Marcus Stroman claims he’s thick-skinned. However, his (latest) reaction on Twitter after losing his arbitration hearing to the Toronto Blue Jays suggests otherwise.

Not that there’s anything wrong with being upset. It’s fueled Stroman to this point of his career, with his ongoing desire to prove all the doubters wrong.

In any event, the 26-year-old has since deleted his tweet and with a night to sleep on it, realises he made a mistake. As reported by Sportsnet‘s Ben Nicholson-Smith, he said:

"“I’m sorry if I took to Twitter to express my frustrations, but it’s an extremely tough process. I’m sorry if I vented my frustration in the wrong way … Your team is pretty much saying negative things about you and you have to be OK with it and deal with it.”"

It probably helps that Stroman will take home $6.5 million in 2018. While this is $400,000 less than what he was looking for, it is still a significant jump from the $3.4 million he earned last year.

The 2017 Gold Glove winner went on to stress his relationship with the Blue Jays is still extremely strong. In fact, as noted by Nicholson-Smith, he’s interested in exploring a multi-year extension with the team.

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As things stand, Stroman still has another couple of years of arbitration to go through. It will be interesting to see how soon the two sides can come to an agreement on a long-term deal.

Until then, all the 2012 first round draft pick can do is continue to produce on the mound. He set career highs for starts, wins and WHIP in 2017, while surpassing 200 innings for the second consecutive year and leading the Jays’ rotation with an excellent 3.09 ERA.

Of course there’s areas of his game Stroman can still work on. However, he’s entering the prime of his career and has already shown his penchant to put the effort in and improve.

Ultimately though, the Medford, New York native wants to remain in Toronto for a long-time, assuming the feeling is mutual. As per Nicholson-Smith, Stroman said:

"“I can’t express to you, honestly, how much I love the city of Toronto and how much I love the country of Canada. I know I’m not a Canadian citizen, but I truly feel like one. I love this country. I do, and I want to be here. That’s it. I want to be here and I want to be here long-term. I just want to feel like I’m wanted here.”"

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How soon is it realistic to expect Stroman to agree a multi-year extension with the Blue Jays? More short-term, what kind of season are you predicting for him in 2018? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.