Stroman contrite after arbitration twitter rant
Marcus Stroman has always marched to the beat of a different drummer, and Friday he made a dramatic about-face.
The day after posting on Twitter his frustration over losing his salary arbitration hearing with the Toronto Blue Jays, Stroman was singing a different tune.
A contrite and surprisingly upbeat Stroman said he was sorry for taking his frustrations out on Twitter, stressing his relationship with the Jays and GM Ross Atkins is as good as ever.
And he also wanted to make something else perfectly clear. His anger on Twitter, he said, had nothing to do with the money he lost in the arbitration process. Stroman asked for a raise from $3.4 million to $6.9 million this year while the Jays argued he should get $6.5 million, a difference of $400,000. The arbitrator ruled in the Jays’ favour.
“It has nothing to do with the money,” Stroman said. “Sitting in a room, hearing how bad you are for five hours, I’m upset because I had to go through the process again. I can honestly care less about 400K. It has nothing to do with that.
“It’s not a process that’s fun,” he added. “It’s not something you can walk out of that room and say, ‘Oh yeah, that was fun. That was something that I learned from.’ It sucks. Everything about it sucks.
“So, I was frustrated and I don’t think I’m wrong for being frustrated. I may have been wrong for taking it to Twitter. But those are my true emotions and how I felt. Like I said, the relationship between the team and I has not changed at all. I talked to Ross this morning. It would not change my idea at all about signing a multi-year (deal with Toronto), or anything going forward.”
Stroman said he would always be open to talking long-term extension with the Jays. He had a good season in 2017, going 13-9 with a 3.09 ERA.