Stroman’s hard feelings,
DUNEDIN, FLA.— In the dream world of professional sports, when it comes to how much players earn and clubs pay, fans will always be divided in their disdain and derision of the two sides. It’s tough for fans to relate when the disputed dollar figures are more than they will make in a lifetime.
When Blue Jays right-hander Marcus Stroman took to Twitter on Thursday to express disappointment at losing his arbitration process — he’ll only make $6.5 million (U.S.) for 2018 instead of the $6.9M he requested — fans rolled their eyes. When they heard the Jays brought in hired legal guns and tore apart their best player for five hours in front of a panel of arbitrators to save $400,000 — risking alienation and losing the good will of a cornerstone of the franchise — fans again rolled their eyes.
Maybe the Jays shouldn’t have put Stroman through the arbitration wringer for a second year. Maybe Stroman should have appreciated that complaining about earning that kind of money is a bad look. In any case, less than 24 hours after he had gone rogue on Twitter to express disappointment and anger in losing arbitration, a much more thoughtful and composed Stroman emerged from the spring clubhouse to clear the air. He said it was never about the money.
“I can honestly care less about $400K, it had nothing to do with that,” Stroman said. “It has everything to do with that I went through (arbitration) last year. I came out this year, I thought I pitched pretty well and I wanted to avoid it this year. It’s not something you want to go to (twice), I promise you.
“It’s not something that you can walk out of the room and say, ‘That was fun. That was something that I learned from.’ It sucks. Everything about it sucks, so I was frustrated. I don’t think I’m wrong for being frustrated. I may have been wrong for taking it to Twitter, but those were my true emotions and how I felt.”
As with most teams, the Jays hired an outside firm to present their negative case, producing a booklet full of negative stats and damning information that was presented to the three-person panel of non-baseball labour arbiters. For a young, sometimes immature player with a need to be active, it must have been tough.
“Me and (GM Ross Atkins), we talked about it earlier (Friday) morning,” Stroman said. “There’s no bad relationship. It’s something that I was frustrated with. I was upset. It was a process I didn’t think I was going to go through with this year. I went through it (in 2017) and it was a brutal process then. When I went though it last year, those things that they say in that room, even though you don’t want to hold onto those things, you do.”
It has yet to be seen whether consecutive years of painful arbitration has driven a wedge between Stroman and the organization. If he had been allowed to be positive at his hearing, his speech would have included his love of being a Blue Jay.
“I can’t express to you honestly how much I love the city of Toronto, how much I love the country of Canada,” Stroman said. “I know I’m not a Canadian citizen, but I truly feel like one. That’s evident in the sponsorships, the businesses, the companies that I’m ambassador for. That’s evident in the trips that I take back to Toronto in the off-season. Cross-country trips that I take to see the fans. I love this country, I do, and I want to be here. So 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.”
There’s a subtle roadblock between Stroman and a long-term extension. Can the Jays in the next two years make him feel like he’s wanted here and will they want him at the salary that he might be expected to command? He will not forget what he perceives as disrespect and the two arbitration hearings are simply that.
But he professes to be open to an approach by the Jays.
“I think there’s possibilities for extension talks at any point,” Stroman said, offering a rose on Friday after what was a stormy Thursday. “I’m always open. I love being a Blue Jay. I love the AL East. I think it’s the best division in baseball. If you’re going to be elite, I think this is the division you need to pitch in, so I want to be here.”
The 15 minutes that he stood and talked about his raw feelings might have been part of his continued maturation and, as it went on, he softened his stance. But here is how he began the session:
“It’s tough to sit in a room like that and just be quiet and listen to all the things dating back to the time I was in the big leagues that work against you,” he said. “So I was upset and I think I had every right. I think if I wasn’t mad, I think it would be even weirder. To be able to sit through that and, if I had no emotion, that’s just not me, because you guys know who I am at this point.
“I’m pretty transparent. I wear my emotions on my sleeve. That’s who I am.”
Maybe it will take a while for him to truly get over his feelings of disrespect. When Stroman stepped out of the clubhouse, he was wearing a Duke baseball hat instead of the Jays cap that is standard issue for player interviews.