Stro shows: Yanks RHP returns, rejects relief role
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Jorge Castillo
TAMPA, Fla. — New York Yankees right-hander Marcus Stroman reported to camp Friday after missing the team’s first two days of workouts, insisting he is ready to make 30-plus starts and will not change his role.
The problem: Stroman isn’t projected to make the Yankees’ starting rotation.
“I won’t pitch in the bullpen,” Stroman said. “I’m a starter.”
It has been a turbulent offseason for Stroman. Personally, he said he lost his home in Malibu in last month’s wildfires in Southern California. Professionally, he has been included in constant trade rumors, with the Yankees looking to move their sixth starter’s $18.5 million salary a year after signing him.
Stroman reported to camp Tuesday for his physical but chose not to show up the next two days for workouts. Though every other Yankees pitcher and catcher reported as expected Wednesday and Thursday, players are not obligated to report for spring training until Feb. 22, per Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement. A year ago, entering his first season with the Yankees, Stroman was in attendance from the beginning of workouts.
“At this stage in my career, I put a priority on getting my body ready,” said Stroman, who turns 34 in May. “I don’t think there was a need for me to be here the last few days, given the climate.”
So why did Stroman show up Friday?
“Just felt like today was a good day to come,” Stroman said. “Valentine’s Day, I felt like the vibes were going to be proper.”
Stroman said he is “very detached” in the offseason and that he learned of the trade speculation through his mother and other people around him. He maintained the rumors did not upset him.
“I’m so grounded at this point,” Stroman said. “Nothing can really faze me. I know who I am as a pitcher. I can compete at any level, with any team. If I’m here, if I’m not here, my body’s ready to roll. I’m ready to go out there and give 30-plus starts.”
Manager Aaron Boone on Thursday said the rumors swirling around Stroman entering the season and his decision not to show up for workouts made for “a little bit of an awkward situation.” He said he had spoken with Stroman since seeing him Tuesday, noting that he was “nudging” him to report to camp. He said he and a few coaches had a “fun, good talk” with Stroman in his office Friday morning.
“He really is in a good frame of mind,” Boone said.
Stroman, who is entering his 11th major league season, signed a two-year contract with a conditional third-year player option worth $37 million guaranteed before last season. Stroman can opt into an $18 million salary next season if he pitches at least 140 innings this year.
Reaching that mark would require starting for the majority of the season. Barring a setback, the Yankees’ five-man rotation will consist of Gerrit Cole, Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Luis Gil and Clarke Schmidt. Boone said the club is unlikely to deploy a six-man rotation.
“Never say never,” Boone said. “I mean, I don’t necessarily see us doing that, but we’ll see where we’re at. Again, that’s a long way away.”
Stroman surpassed the 140-inning threshold in 2024, logging 154⅔ innings on his fourth major league team with a 4.31 ERA across 30 games (29 starts) during the regular season.
As in 2023, when he was an All-Star for the Chicago Cubs, it was a tale of two halves for Stroman: He posted a 3.51 ERA in 19 starts before the All-Star break and a 5.98 ERA in 10 starts and a relief appearance in the second half. Stroman also struggled at Yankee Stadium, tallying a 5.31 ERA in 16 home starts compared to a 3.09 ERA on the road.
Stroman didn’t pitch in the playoffs during the Yankees’ run to the World Series. He said not pitching in October did not bother him. The question now is whether he will throw another pitch for the Yankees again.
“Everyone in that clubhouse, I have nothing but love for and they all know that,” Stroman said. “We all have a great relationship in there, from the staff and the employees all the way down. You can freely go ask anybody. I love everybody in that clubhouse. This is part of the business. It has nothing to do with my love for anybody in there.”
NASCAR driver Katherine Legge said she has been receiving “hate mail” and “death threats” from auto racing fans after she was involved in a crash that collected veteran driver Kasey Kahne during the Xfinity Series race last weekend at Rockingham.
Legge, who has started four Indy 500s but is a relative novice in stock cars, added during Tuesday’s episode of her “Throttle Therapy” podcast that “the inappropriate social media comments I’ve received aren’t just disturbing, they are unacceptable.”
“Let me be very clear,” the British driver said, “I’m here to race and I’m here to compete, and I won’t tolerate any of these threats to my safety or to my dignity, whether that’s on track or off of it.”
Legge became the first woman in seven years to start a Cup Series race earlier this year at Phoenix. But her debut in NASCAR’s top series ended when Legge, who had already spun once, was involved in another spin and collected Daniel Suarez.
Her next start was the lower-level Xfinity race in Rockingham, North Carolina, last Saturday. Legge was good enough to make the field on speed but was bumped off the starting grid because of ownership points. Ultimately, she was able to take J.J. Yeley’s seat in the No. 53 car for Joey Gase Motorsports, which had to scramble at the last minute to prepare the car for her.
Legge was well off the pace as the leaders were lapping her, and when she entered Turn 1, William Sawalich got into the back of her car. That sent Legge spinning, and Kahne had nowhere to go, running into her along the bottom of the track.
“I gave [Sawalich] a lane and the reason the closing pace looks so high isn’t because I braked midcorner. I didn’t. I stayed on my line, stayed doing my speed, which obviously isn’t the speed of the leaders because they’re passing me,” Legge said. “He charged in a bit too hard, which is the speed difference you see. He understeered up a lane and into me, which spun me around.”
The 44-year-old Legge has experience in a variety of cars across numerous series. She made seven IndyCar starts for Dale Coyne Racing last year, and she has raced for several teams over more than a decade in the IMSA SportsCar series.
She has dabbled in NASCAR in the past, too, starting four Xfinity races during the 2018 season and another two years ago.
“I have earned my seat on that race track,” Legge said. “I’ve worked just as hard as any of the other drivers out there, and I’ve been racing professionally for the last 20 years. I’m 100 percent sure that … the teams that employed me — without me bringing any sponsorship money for the majority of those 20 years — did not do so as a DEI hire, or a gimmick, or anything else. It’s because I can drive a race car.”
Legge believes the vitriol she has received on social media is indicative of a larger issue with women in motorsports.
“Luckily,” she said, “I have been in tougher battles than you guys in the comment sections.”
Legge has received plenty of support from those in the racing community. IndyCar driver Marco Andretti clapped back at one critic on social media who called Legge “unproven” in response to a post about her history at the Indy 500.
“It’s wild to me how many grown men talk badly about badass girls like this,” Andretti wrote on X. “Does it make them feel more manly from the couch or something?”
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