Stroman changes his tune after Twitter rant

ruled in the Jays’ favour.

Stroman’s angry tweets on Thursday made him look like a spoiled athlete, whining about only making $6.5 million. For once, there was considerable backlash in Blue Jays Nation against Stroman, who generally gets nothing but love on social media.

“It has nothing to do with the money,” Stroman said of his angry tweet. “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 andhowIfelt.LikeIsaid,therelationship 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 and always wore his heart on his sleeve.

His tweets on Thursday were another example of that. He criticized the Jays in December when they non-tendered his longtime teammate and friend Ryan Goins.

At the end of the day, the Medford, N.Y., native said he wants to play for the Jays and loves the organization. It’s the arbitration process he hates.

“It’s just tough sitting in a room for five hours, completely silent, being handed a booklet of things they are (using) against you, and why you’re bad,” Stroman said.

“It’s tough, but it’s over with. I’m going to move forward.”

Stroman has often had a rocky relationship with the Toronto media, but on Friday he couldn’t have been more pleasant and accommodating. It’s almost like somebody on the team got to him.

“I’ve been through a lot in my life,” said the 5-foot-8 righthander. “I’m sorry if I took to Twitter to show my frustrations. I’m sorry if I vented my frustration the wrong way. I’m going to use that as fire like last year.”

Stroman said going through arbitration prior to the 2017 sea- son left a bad taste in his mouth as well, even though he won. But he used it as motivation.

Jays manager John Gibbons said he wasn’t worried about the Twitter storm and figured Stroman wouldn’t get “a whole lot of sympathy out there in the real world, put it that way,” over the salary dispute.

Gibbons added Stroman will always be one of his favourite players.

“I love him personally,” he said. “I’ve been his only manager here.

“He’s done a lot of good things for this organization, he’s done a lot of good things for me personally. I don’t forgot those things.

“But he’ll tone it down,” Gibbons added.

Wrapping up his interview session, Stroman expressed his undying love for everything Toronto and the Blue Jays.

“I can’t express to you honestly how much I love the city of Toronto, how much I love the country of Canada. I know I’m not a Canadian citizen, but I truly do feel like one, I promise you that,” hesaid.

“I love this country. I do. And I want to be here. That’s it. I want to be here and I want to be here long term. I just want to feel like I’m wanted here.”