By Jordan Long
Major League Baseball is now in a lockout. The current CBA (collective bargaining agreement) expired at 12:00 A.M. Eastern Time this morning. This freezes the offseason and free agency. The Chicago Cubs though were able to sign pitcher Marcus Stroman before the lockout started.
Stroman is a 7-year veteran and has played for the Toronto Blue Jays and the New York Mets. His career record is 61-60 with an ERA of 3.63. Stroman appeared in 5 postseason games. His record in the playoffs is 1-1 with an ERA of 6.17.
Last season, Stroman pitched for the New York Mets. He started 33 games and ended with a 10-13 record. His ERA was 3.02. Stroman was a pitcher the Mets counted on. He rarely threw a ball in the zone where a hitter could smack it for home runs, giving up 8. Stroman gave up mostly ground balls and fly outs. He knew how to attack the strike zone, with a total of 158 strikeouts.
There were times Stroman lost a batter because of a walk. A hitter wouldn’t swing at pitches outside the zone and those were walks which added traffic onto the base paths. He walked 44 batters but those didn’t cost him in the end.
When the Mets 2021 season was over, it was surprising they didn’t re-sign him. He had pitched very well for them and moving forward, the Mets needed pitching to become a playoff team. After letting him go they agreed to a ridiculous contract with pitcher Max Scherzer. Scherzer agreed to a 3 year, $130 million contract, basically replacing Stroman as the ace of the staff.
The Cubs wanted to improve their starting pitching. Chicago finished the 2021 year with a starting team ERA of 5.27, 27th in MLB. That needed to change if they were going to do something in 2022. They felt Stroman was the right pitcher for them. They agreed to a 3-year, $71 million contract.
According to ESPN.com, Stroman said, “It’s one of the best franchises in all of sports and fan bases as well, so it’s extremely appealing to me. It sells out every single night. To pitch in front of that electric crowd is something that kind of draws me.”
The Cubs may have improved the rotation with this one move. Stroman is a veteran and may be the ace of the Cubs’ staff. The Cubs rotation includes Kyle Hendricks, Wade Miley, and Alec Mills. Hendricks and Stroman are both strong pitchers to start the rotation. They should keep the Cubs in games.
The Cubs, though, still have a lot of work to do. This one move is great on paper but it doesn’t clear the gap between them and the St. Louis Cardinals and Milwaukee Brewers who were both playoff teams last year. They need to upgrade the bullpen which had an ERA of 4.39 which was 21st in MLB this past year. Once that is figured out, Chicago could compete. The Cubs and all of MLB will have to wait until the lockout is lifted to make any more moves.
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