Mets should look into a long-term relationship with Marcus Stroman

The New York Mets should add Marcus Stroman, a Long Island native, to their long-term plans. He would be a plus to both the pitching staff and the clubhouse. 

Marcus Stroman was so excited about Steve Cohen’s November press conference that he turned down free agency and took the team’s qualifying offer of $18 million dollars to return for the 2021 season. Now the New York Mets should take a deep breath and extend him now rather than risk him having a monster season and then going elsewhere for more money.

Cohen wants to build a great team and having Stroman around for several years would help that. He showed promise during his final starts of the ‘19 season and would look to keep that going for this upcoming year.

Don’t Worry About The Past Season

Let’s get the past season out of our minds. It was a complete aberration. Everything went haywire when Spring Training was stopped and then started. Players, especially pitchers, put themselves at even greater risk of injury by trying to re-start their routines – look at what happened to Noah Syndergaard.

Also, let’s say the Mets DO get Trevor Bauer to complete the “Pitchers Named Trevor” set – Bauer has been on record as being fascinated by Stroman’s slider. Having the two discussing pitching every day can be a good thing for both of them. The real beneficiaries, though? The Mets.

Don’t Throw Ridiculous Money At Him

Stroman is going to be 30, so it makes sense for the Mets to offer him an extension that is no more than five years. By doing that, they will minimize the decline phase of his career. Anything longer than that and they risk having an albatross across their neck. Of course, this is easy for me to say, I’m not the one dealing with the game’s salary structure.

The righty is an intense competitor. There’s no worry that he’s going to settle back once he’s gotten his contract. Stroman lives to compete, and he’s going to earn every penny that he makes.

He Loves New York

Over the years, there have been many talented pitchers who made their way to the Big Apple… and promptly wilted from the pressure. Stroman seems to thrive on it. He may have had some early jitters in his initial starts in the blue and orange, but he didn’t allow more than two earned runs during the final four times he took the hill.

He’s shown a strong presence on social media and he is not afraid to put people in their place if they say something that irks him. This is a man who knows who he is and what he’s capable of… the New York media has not fazed him so far, so there’s very little chance that the lights of the city will ever blind him.

Yes, there are prevailing concerns about things like his height – he’s 5’8. Baseball wisdom thinks that starting pitchers should be tall. They wonder how far his heart and his slider might take him. Baseball-Reference compares him to Dillon Gee and Zack Wheeler, which is kind of a weird one, but that’s what their stats say. Still, he offers a ton of intangibles, and having both him and Dom Smith would be excellent.

While Stroman has never put up what some might think of as “monster numbers” over the course of his career, he’s also spent most of that time in what many think of like baseball’s toughest division – the American League East. Having to consistently face the Yankees and the Red Sox is a task. There is only one real dangerous lineup now in the National League East, the Braves, with their lineup that includes Ronald Acuna, Freddie Freeman, and Ozzie Albies.

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When it comes to contracts, there’s always a risk when it comes to signing pitchers to a long-term deal. They are guaranteed, after all, and there’s always a chance that something can happen. These are the Cohen Mets, though, not the Wilpon Mets, and this would be one deal that would be well worth taking the chance.  Let’s keep Marcus in the fold for up to five years.