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 going on Twitter and posting 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.
Stroman’s tweets made him look like a spoiled athlete, whining about making $6.5 million. 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. “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 and always wore his heart on his sleeve.
His tweet Thursday was another example. He criticized the Jays in December when they non-tendered his friend Ryan Goins.
Stroman said going through arbitration before the 2017 season 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.”
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.”