Sad News: MLB Rejected Yankees On Transaction Deal….

In a significant move for Major League Baseball, the New York Yankees have inked a two-year contract with right-handed pitcher Marcus Stroman, a deal reportedly worth $37 million through 2025. A two-time All-Star and Long Island-native, Stroman brings a career 3.65 ERA and a 116 ERA+ to the Yankees’ rotation, adding muscle to a lineup that includes ace Gerrit Cole.

Yankees’ Roster Revamp

In order to accommodate Stroman, the Yankees designated outfielder Oscar Gonzalez for assignment. This step follows a series of roster changes, including the signing of Luke Weaver last week and a trade that brought Juan Soto and Trent Grisham onboard. However, the Yankees missed out on Japanese free agent Yoshinobu Yamamoto, highlighting the competitive nature of the current player market.

Stroman’s Journey and Prospects

Stroman’s path to the Yankees has been a storied one. Initially drafted by the Washington Nationals, he chose to hone his skills at Duke University before being picked by the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2012 First-Year Player Draft. Stints with the New York Mets and the Chicago Cubs followed, with Stroman posting a 10-9 record and a 3.95 ERA in his 2023 season with the Cubs.

Coming to the Yankees, Stroman is expected to slot into the middle of the rotation, with his six-pitch arsenal and a powerful sinker that has led to the second-lowest HR/9 rate among pitchers with at least 100 innings pitched. The Yankees will be banking on Stroman to replicate his first-half performance that saw him named to his second All-Star team.

Looking Ahead

Stroman’s signing represents a blending of past rivalries and future expectations. Once at odds with the Yankees, he now dons the pinstripes and looks forward to energizing the Yankee Stadium with his performances. His signing is a testament to the Yankees’ commitment to strengthening their pitching depth and is a key highlight in a series of MLB transactions.

Yankees seem poised to play the $300 million underdog card

My favorite part of clinching celebrations during the Yankees dynasty years was waiting for the first player amid the flowing champagne to offer a “No one believed in us.”

That would allow me to retort, “Yep, no one believed in the team with the highest payroll, most stars and all this championship history.”

I get that it has become embedded in the modern sports lexicon to play this card no matter the size of the overdog saying it. All winners are going to talk about overcoming adversity like they climbed the Matterhorn in flip-flops while ignoring that every team in every sport and, thus, every playoff team and champion has to overcome the injury, underperformance and internal strifes endemic to a season.

I am only pointing this out because I think the Yankees of Gerrit Cole, Aaron Judge and a $300 million-plus payroll are about to try to play the “us versus the naysayers” mantra. To this, Marcus Stroman, whose two-year. $37 million deal with the Yankees became official Wednesday, is ideal. Because when it comes to chips on the shoulder and voicing the “no one believed in me” script, there is no one quite like this first-round draft pick out of Duke.

Let that be repeated: A first-round draft pick out of Duke playing the no one believed in me card as if they were a 37th-round pick out of Colby (Kansas) Community College. Love it.

Anyway, I actually think that the Yankees’ worst season in three decades has the organization feeling aggrieved and picked on. When their GM is publicly calling just about every criticism of his team and his administration bull(bleep), it speaks to Brian Cashman’s feistiness and also to a franchise that has done so well for so long not exactly knowing how to absorb these body blows.

It also led to the Yankees going to their safe space this offseason: paying what they must in prospects (Juan Soto) or dollars (Yoshinobu Yamamoto) to collect stars. Except Yamamoto did not take their money, which ultimately can buy a lot but can’t change geography when the pitcher preferred the West Coast (Dodgers).

The Yankees did not like the starting pitching prices elsewhere enough to budge, notably on Blake Snell or in trade for Dylan Cease. So they turned to Stroman, who somewhere within scrubbing a quarrelsome social media history and having dinner in Tampa with Aaron Boone and partaking in a couple of phone calls with other influential Yankees personnel convinced club decision-makers that he could be trusted to keep the focus on winning and his performance.

To that, perhaps, Stroman could offer no one believed in him — at least no one outside the employ of the Yankees, who over the years have talked themselves into (among others) A.J. Burnett and Joey Gallo and Josh Donaldson and Carlos Rodon, when there was an awful lot of evidence that it was a bad idea.