CLEARWATER, Fla. — Before the Yankees signed Marcus Stroman in January, they tapped into a knowledgeable in-house resource for insight.
Luis Rojas provided Brian Cashman and Aaron Boone a positive review of Stroman from the season and a half they spent together on the Mets — first as quality control coach in 2019 and then as manager in 2021.
Rojas, now the Yankees’ third-base coach, lauded Stroman’s energy, talent and experience.
“I love Stro,” Rojas said Sunday.
Rojas also got a firsthand view of how in tune Stroman is with his body and mechanics — “Big feel guy,” Rojas said — which was evident on Sunday when the right-hander made his Grapefruit League debut.
Stroman built his pitch count up to 52 across 2 ¹/₃ innings while trying to get his mechanics in sync against the Phillies at BayCare Ballpark.
He estimated they felt right in about 25-30 pitches, and on the ones that felt slightly off, he could often be seen immediately going through specific motions of his mechanics while waiting to get the ball back from catcher Austin Wells.
“I think I’m in a good place,” Stroman said after giving up a pair of runs on four singles and a walk while striking out two. “I don’t think I’m where I need to be. That’s why we have another four to five weeks. But definitely as far as throwing strikes and being able to command the zone with a few of my pitches, I feel like I’m ahead of schedule in that sense. But definitely not synced up and where I need to be mechanically heading into the season. Over the next two, three, four outings, I see that all coming together.”
Stroman was sharp in his first inning of work, getting three fly outs (an oddity for a ground-ball machine) before losing some of his command in the second inning.
Taking advantage of spring training re-entry rules, Rojas (acting as manager for the split-squad game) took Stroman out as his pitch count was rising and then sent him back out for the third inning to finish his work.
“I think he got what he needed,” Rojas said. “He was hanging out in the dugout after he came out and he was talking to different people, resources, pitching coaches and people he’s been working with since he got here. He’s looking for that feel. Sometimes he finishes a pitch and it’s probably not where he wanted, you can see he’s trying to find that touch, whether it was his hip, his release point, [etc].”
Most importantly, Stroman came out of the start healthy after battling hip and rib injuries during the second half of last season.
The Long Island native should have around five more starts to come this spring, giving him plenty of time to build up his workload (he said Sunday he already feels ahead of schedule in that regard) and fine tune his mechanics.
“Pitching’s all feel,” Stroman said. “Timing, feel, being able to get to the point where I can try to replicate my delivery close to the same 100 times a game. It’s pretty hard to do. To the eye, it may look like it’s the same every time, but to us pitchers, something different can be going on many times. Just getting all dialed in.”
Rojas knows from experience how important that is for Stroman.
“This guy is really smart,” Rojas said. “He works his butt off all the time just to be in shape. His primary goal is to have over 30 starts in a season and be there for the team the whole year. Stats-wise, I can’t recall him saying I’m going to do this or that. But just to have the 30 starts for the team, that’s his main goal. He takes a lot of pride in being in good physical condition and having good body control.”
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