Marcus Stroman believes Yankees have ‘one of the better’ MLB pitching staffs, says he’s fully healthy

Marcus Stroman likes what he sees from the Yankees’ starting staff.

The newest member of the Yankees pitching corps heaped praise on his rotation mates, saying he feels good about how a fivesome featuring him, ace Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes and Clarke Schmidt stacks up.

“I think we have one of the better staffs out there,” Stroman, who hails from the Long Island hamlet of Medford, said Thursday during an introductory Zoom call.

“Cole is Cy Young, if not [a] Cy Young candidate, each and every year,” Stroman, 32, said. “Rodon, when he’s right, [is] arguably the same, and then Nestor, he’s another guy who can perform incredibly well. I actually think Clarke Schmidt is gonna be a guy for many, many years in this league. Once he fine-tunes the little things, his repertoire is incredible and he’s got some big, big, big-time stuff.”

Stroman, a two-time All-Star with a 3.65 ERA over nine seasons, joined the Yankees on a two-year, $37 million contract with a conditional player option for a third year. Formerly of the Blue Jays, Mets and Cubs, the right-hander slots into a Yankees rotation that, behind the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner Cole, features its share of question marks.

Rodon — a two-time All-Star who signed a six-year, $162 million contract last offseason — struggled with injuries and inconsistency in his first season in pinstripes, which he finished with a 6.85 ERA over 14 starts.

The crafty Cortes, a 2022 All-Star, made only one start after May 30 due to a nagging shoulder issue and ended up with a 4.97 ERA. Schmidt, a former first-round pick, pitched to a 4.64 ERA in his first MLB season as a full-time starter.

Stroman, too, endured an uneven 2023 season with the Cubs. He began the year 9-4 with a 2.28 ERA but went 1-5 with an 8.29 ERA over his final 11 outings, including nine starts. He dealt with hip and rib injuries during that difficult stretch but says he’s fully healthy now.

“I’m perfect,” Stroman said. “I’m ready to rock, man. I’m four or five bullpens in. Body feels great. … I’m fully healed. Everything feels brand new, so just excited to get out there and compete.”

A healthy Stroman would help solidify a Yankees pitching staff that lost considerable depth over the offseason, including through the trades for outfielders Juan Soto, Trent Grisham and Alex Verdugo.

Stroman, whose low-90s sinker is his go-to pitch, adds a different dynamic to a Yankees rotation full of fly-ball pitchers. Last year, Stroman’s 57.4% ground-ball rate put him in the 94th percentile among MLB pitchers. None of the Yankees’ other current starters finished in the 60th percentile.

“He doesn’t have any fear,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said Thursday of Stroman. “He’s the ultimate competitor. Being a ground-ball machine fits rather nicely in the American League East, especially Yankee Stadium. I was talking to a lot of our guys about it, and they loved how he goes about his business, how he, on the mound, performs and goes about carving up opposing lineups.”

The Yankees made a push this offseason to sign Japanese ace Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who ultimately joined the Dodgers on a historic 12-year, $325 million contract. Cashman acknowledged Thursday that “everything was on hold until the Yamamoto thing played out” but said he’d been in touch with Stroman’s agent, Brodie Van Wagenen, before then.

The Stroman conversations “got real heavy” after Yamamoto chose Los Angeles, Cashman said.

In addition to adding Stroman, the Yankees hope to get bounce-back seasons from Rodon and Cortes, who are training in Tampa and receiving encouraging feedback.

“We have a good rotation if everything goes right, which is something you don’t want to count on and lay back counting on, so we’ll constantly continue to look and tinker if possible,” Cashman said. “But we do like what we have.”

Stroman agrees.

“I already talked to Gerrit a bit,” Stroman said. “I can’t wait to just be around the guys. I feel like I’m someone who adapts very easily, and I’m able to take bits and pieces from other people’s games and kind of put it into my game.”