Marcus Stroman, like many others, started the game of baseball while he was in high school. However, he would turn down a Major League Baseball team in the 2009 Draft to attend college. While at Duke University, he played majorly at shortstop and second base. He also holds the record for most strikeouts by any player in the Duke Bue Devils baseball team.
Stroman finally signed for the Toronto Blue Jays in the 2012 MLB Draft. After a few seasons in lower-tier teams, he made his major league debut for the Blue Jays in 2014. In 2017, the pitcher had the best season of his career, winning the Golden Glove Award.
Marcus Stroman Bio, Career
He was born Marcus Earl Stroman in Medford, New York, on May 1, 1991. He grew up in Medford where he schooled at Patchogue-Medford High School. The Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball came knocking in 2009 when they selected Marcus in the 18th round of the draft. However, the baseball enthusiast had his sights set on a college education at Duke University, so, he turned down the opportunity.
While at Duke, Stroman made a total of 97 appearances for the University’s Blue Devils. Even though most of these came in the second base and shortstop positions, he still managed to achieve 290 strikeouts over 222 innings, the best ever recorded by any of Duke’s players. Marcus Stroman graduated from Duke on May 15, 2016.
In 2012, he was the 22nd overall pick during the MLB draft, making him the first-ever player from Duke University to be picked in the first round of the MLB draft. Stroman signed for the Toronto Blue Jays and started his professional career with the Low-A Vancouver Canadians. He was subsequently moved up to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats by his parent team in August 2012. Towards the end of the month, he received a massive 50-game suspension for testing positive for methylhexanamine.
He eventually turned out for the New Hampshire starting May 19, 2013. After spring training camp with the Blue Jays, Marcus Stroman was the starting pitcher on Opening Day for the triple-A-rated Buffalo Bisons.
After making his debut for Toronto upon his call back, he was optioned back on May 18 and recalled on May 30 to make his first major league start. A little over a week later, he pitched the first nine innings of his career in a 3-2 defeat over the Detroit Tigers. His first complete game shutout came in an 8-0 victory against the Chicago Cubs.
He was suspended and fined on September 6 for a scuffle with Baltimore’s Caleb Joseph. Stroman finished 2014 with an 11-6 record, 111 strikeouts, and a 3.65 ERA.
During spring training, ahead of the 2015 season, Marcus sustained an injury, an anterior cruciate ligament tear in his left knee. It was during his period of rehabilitation that he returned to Duke University to complete his education. In 2016, he would graduate with a bachelor’s in Sociology.
He returned on September 2, 2015, with the Class-A Lansing Lugnuts. Marcus Stroman came back to the Blue Jays as a starting pitcher in the game against the New York Yankees on September 12, 2015, finishing the year with a 4-0 record, 1.67 ERA, and a total of 18 strikeouts out of 27 innings.
The Blue Jays pitcher started on the Opening Day of the 2016 season against Tampa Bay Rays in a 5-3 victory. Again, on May 1, in a game against Tampa, Marcus recorded 9 strikeouts, the highest-ever number of strikeouts by any Blue Jays pitcher on their birthday. Three months later, he struck out 13 batters in a game against the Houston Astros, finishing the 2016 season with a 9-10 record and a 4.37 ERA. At the end of the campaign, Marcus had also pitched a personal high of 204 innings, garnering 166 strikeouts in the process. The Blue Jays also beat Baltimore in the Wild Card game to advance to the 2016 American League Division Series, and the American League Championship Series after defeating the Cleveland Indians.
Starting his 2017 career with an improved salary, he achieved the first hit of his career in a 6-5 victory against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 25, 2017. He continued to put in impressive displays in games against the likes of the Atlanta Braves. Marcus Stroman was forced to leave the September 2nd game against the Baltimore Orioles after he had been struck on the elbow by a line drive. Toronto would go on to win the game 7-2 in his absence.
The 2017 season saw Stroman collect 13 wins, and pitch 201 innings. This made him the seventh Blue Jays pitcher to achieve back-to-back 200-innings seasons in the past 20 years. He also recorded a 3.09 ERA and 164 strikeouts. His efforts for the campaign were enough to see him beat out Chris Sale and Alex Cobb for the Golden Glove Award. He was also given the Blue Jays’ pitcher of the Year Award by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
In 2017, Marcus represented the United States at the 2017 World Baseball Classic, making 3 starts. In the final game against Puerto Rico, Stroman led the US to an 8-0 victory and their first-ever World Baseball Classic championship. His name also made it to the All-World Baseball Classic team.
Marcus Stroman’s Family: Dad, Mom, Siblings
Marcus Stroman was born to a Puerto Rican mother and an American father, making him eligible to represent both countries at the World Baseball Classic. His dad, Earl Stroman works as a police detective in New York. Marcus’s parents, Earl and Adlin Auffant ended their marriage when he was just in 5th grade.
He has two siblings, a brother Jayden, and a sister, Sabria.
Salary and Net Worth
On February 14, 2017, Marcus Stroman won his arbitration case, causing his salary to be upped to $3.4 million. Although he lost the case in 2018, his salary was still raised to $6.5 million.
The athlete also has some lucrative deals with giants like Nike, Jordan Brand, New Era, Bio Steel, and others. These deals came after he completed the process of trademarking “Height Doesn’t Measure Heart” and “HDMH”, owing to his relatively short height in January 2015. Various sources peg his net worth at $6 million.
Marcus Stroman Height, Weight, and Body Measurements
Stroman is listed by the MLB as having a height of 5 feet 8 inches, putting him in the elite group of only seven pitchers in Major League Baseball that are shorter than 5 feet 10 inches. According to Marcus himself, he stands at 5 feet 7.25 inches.
The pitcher also maintains a respectable weight of 82 kg (180.8 lbs). Nothing else is known about his other body measurements.
