Stroman signs a two-year deal with the Yankees (source).

Stroman signs a two-year deal with the Yankees (source).

A source told Mark Feinsand that the Yankees and free agent right-hander Marcus Stroman have agreed to a three-year, $37 million deal.

The deal includes a binding option for a third year. In his Instagram Stories, Stroman also shared a picture of himself wearing a Yankees outfit.

The club hasn’t said yes to the deal yet because the player needs to get a physical. A source told Feinsand that Stroman has a $18 million player choice for 2026 if he pitches 140 innings in 2025.

It’s not the first time that Stroman has been tied to NYC. Before the Investment Deadline in 2019, New York was interested in hiring him.

At the time, Stroman played for the Blue Jays and wanted to play for the Bronx Bombers. Stroman comes from Medford, New York, which is not far from the Bronx.

“I’m a New York boy from New York.” “That pretty much says it all,” Stroman said at the time. “I love throwing strikes at Yankee Stadium.” New York is the center of the world. I love the thrill of battle, the bright lights, and the stress.

I loved throwing here for a long time. I haven’t always pitched well. It was always fun for me. The Yankees’ lines are very bad.

They’re not easy to get around in. I love the attention. It was more important to me that the moment was big.

From his first game with the Toronto Blue Jays in 2014 until now, Stroman has been a regularly above-average starter. The last four years, his ERA+ has never been worse than 113.

Last season, he hit 113, and at first it looked like the 32-year-old could have a great year. In his first 16 games for the Cubs, he had an earned run average of 2.28 and an opponents’ batting average of.536, which helped him make the second All-Star team.

Stroman’s 2023 season went downhill in July, when he gave up 27 earned runs over 26 2/3 innings. On August 2, he was put on the injury list with soreness in his right hip.

Stroman’s return to the field was slowed by a broken cartilage in his right hip. He finally joined the Chicago Cubs on September 15 and only threw eight innings in four bullpen outings to finish the year.

He finished his career with an overall 3.95 ERA, which was the second-best record of his career.

Because of these illnesses, Stroman’s innings had dropped below 140 over the second year in a row.

A sore right shoulder kept him out for a month in 2022, and he also missed more than two weeks because of COVID-19.

Stroman was one of baseball’s more reliable pitchers before that. He pitched more than 180 innings on three occasions in the four years from 2016 to 2019. In 2016 and 2017, he pitched more than 200 innings for the Blue Jays.

The following year, he won the Gold Glove Award and was in the top 10 contenders for the AL Cy Young Award.

Stroman was traded to the Blue Jays to the Mets after being picked for his first All-Star Game within 2019. He played for the Mets until 2021.

He didn’t play in 2020 because he tore his left leg muscle before the short season, and he also chose not to play because of COVID-19 worries in August.

Stroman usually has below-average strikeout rates, but he has always relied on his low-90s sinker to get a lot of grounders and stop really bad contact.

For the first three decades of his career, his ground-ball rate had been above 60% every year. It has never been below 50%. In 2023, he got 57%, which was his best grade since 2018.

Stroman’s chase rate (26.8%) along with zone rate (45.8%) both went down a lot last season, but his walk rate went up to a best-ever 9.0%.

At the end of the year, his K-BB rate of 11.7% was the 67th best among pitchers who threw a minimum of 130 innings.

Sources say Stroman will get a third-year option worth $18 million if he throws 140 innings in 2025. He threw 136≔ innings in 2018 and 138.2 in 2022, but four times he has thrown more than 140.

The Yankees wanted to add a starting to their team after signing outfielder Juan Soto in the summer.

They looked at NL Cy Young winner Blake Snell, but the price was too high for them, so they turned to Stroman, to be the New York Post first noted.

Stroman, who has been in the MLB for nine years, will be joining his fourth team in six years. He started his career alongside the Toronto Blue Jays in 2014 and played for the New York Mets from 2019 to 2021.

He then played for the Chicago Cubs for two years before choosing not to make his $21 million pay this season.