Philadelphia Phillies: Look into signing Marcus Stroman this offseason

The Philadelphia Phillies should kick the tires on RHP Marcus Stroman this offseason.

Believe it not, the Philadelphia Phillies are almost halfway finished with their 2020 MLB season. Currently sat at 12-14 heading into their weekend series with the Atlanta Braves, Bryce Harper and the Phils are scratching and clawing their way into a playoff spot this year.

However, with the MLB season genuinely almost complete, that does in fact mean that the offseason is right around corner. While Matt Klentak and the Phillies have their own pending free agent in JT Realmuto to worry about first, one name that has started to stick out to me should the team opt to spend big again is that of RHP Marcus Stroman.

Currently not pitching this season due to a COVID-19 related opt-out, Stroman is technically on the New York Mets roster. He was acquired by the team last season via a trade with the Toronto Blue Jays, but they’ve only managed to get 11 total starts out of him up to date (due to injuries and the opt-out).

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Stroman expressed a great deal of displeasure when it was announced he was being traded to the Mets at last year’s trade deadline, so it’s relatively safe to say he won’t be re-signing with them anytime soon. Not only does Stroman not appear too happy pitching for New York, but the Mets have also shown an unwillingness to fork out big money to starters in the past (*ahem* Zack Wheeler), so this is a divorce that is likely all but sealed.

Prior to his trade to the Mets, Stroman was in the process of building a name for himself as one of the better developing starters in all of baseball. He posted a 2.96 ERA across 21 starts for Toronto last season, and was selected to his first career All-Star game. Back in 2017, Stroman won a Gold Glove award while also receiving the teeniest amount of Cy Young consideration, as he finished that year with a career-best 3.09 ERA.

Stroman is a finesse pitcher, relying heavily on timing and location to get batters out. He primarily throws a 91mph cutter and a 93mph sinker, both inducing a large amount of weak contact, while working in a nasty 86mph slider as his go-to “strikeout pitch”.

The Philadelphia Phillies just handed out $100+ million to Wheeler this past summer, so investing in yet another top-end starter might seem like a foolish plan. The team also obviously has Aaron Nola as their ace, and rookie Spencer Howard projects to be an elite major league arm.

However, the 2019 World Series champions set a pretty decent precedent when it comes to starting rotations. Despite plenty of metrics and analysts telling the Nationals that signing lefty Patrick Corbin would backfire last offseason, the team walked away with a world championship. The 1-2-3-4 punch of Scherzer, Strasburg, Corbin, and Sanchez was simply too brutal on opposing lineups down the stretch.

By looking into a guy like Stroman, the Phillies could build their own elite starting rotation, one that would even rival the team’s “Four Aces” staff of the early 2010s. A top four of Nola-Wheeler-Stroman-Howard would be up there as one of the league’s best, and could see the Phillies routinely make the postseason on the back’s of their plus starters.

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For what it’s worth, the Philadelphia Phillies need to take care of Realmuto and Didi Gregorius first before splurging on the open market again. Both have done more than enough to warrant contract extensions, and letting them walk to sign a guy like Stroman would be one step forward and two steps backward. However, if the the Phils can figure out all their in-house extensions, Stroman would be an ideal top target in terms of adding this offseason.

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