Phillies may regret not pushing harder to land Marcus Stroman

With Marcus Stroman heading to the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies seem to have missed a golden opportunity to boost their rotation.

For weeks, the Philadelphia Phillies have been viewed as a team that needs to be aggressive leading up to the trade deadline to add another pitcher to the rotation, which is why Marcus Stroman seemed like a potential candidate.

Since the Toronto Blue Jays seemed to be willing to move on from the pitcher to help land prospects for the future, just the thought of Stroman ending up on a team like the Phillies seemed like a possibility, that is until Sunday.

It was frustrating enough to hear Philadelphia missed out on Stroman, but hearing how the pitcher is heading to the New York Mets took that frustration to new levels since the Phillies will have to deal with him within the division.

Despite having a 10-20 record dating back to last season, the argument can be made that Stroman was at a major disadvantage playing on a struggling team in the Blue Jays.

Time will tell when it comes to determining whether a fresh start on a new team in the Mets will help Stroman get back on the right track, but one thing seems certain in how great of an addition he would have been on the Phillies.

Outside of Aaron Nola, it’s been no secret that Philadelphia’s pitching rotation has been unreliable at times over the last few months, and the recent elbow injury Jake Arrieta is dealing with certainly hasn’t helped either.

Keep in mind that it was only a few years ago in which Stroman looked like a pitcher on the rise in the league with a 13-9 record in 2017, and if he manages to return to that level during this final stretch with the Mets, it’s only going to hurt the Phillies even more.

Now that August is about to get underway, Philadelphia will be facing heavy pressure each game since every contest will be extremely important in order to remain in the playoff hunt.

And while there’s nothing the Phillies can do now about Stroman since the deal is done, it’s still going to be difficult not to wonder how great of a move this could have been.