Marcus Stroman, like many others, started playing baseball when he was still in high school. However, in the 2009 draft, he turned down a major-league baseball team to attend college. During his time at Duke University, he played mainly at shortstop and second base. He also holds the record for the most strikeouts of any player on the Duke Bue Devils baseball team.
In the 2012 MLB Draft, Stroman finally signed for the Toronto Blue Jays. After a few seasons in lower league teams, he made his Major League debut for the Blue Jays in 2014. In 2017 the pitcher had the best season of his career and won the Golden Glove Award.
Marcus Stroman Bio, Career
He was born on 1 May 1991 as Marcus Earl Stroman in Medford, New York. He grew up in Medford, where he attended Patchogue-Medford High School. The Washington Nationals of Major League Baseball knocked on the door in 2009 when they voted Marcus in the 18th round of the draft. However, the baseball enthusiast had his sights set on a college education at Duke University and turned down the opportunity.
During his time at Duke, Stroman had a total of 97 performances for the university’s Blue Devils. Although most of them were on second base and shortstop positions, he still managed to score 290 strikeouts in 222 innings, the best result ever achieved by a Duke player. Marcus Stroman graduated from Duke University on May 15, 2016.
In 2012, he was the 22nd overall pick during the MLB draft, making him the first Duke University player to be selected in the first round of the MLB draft. Stroman signed for the Toronto Blue Jays and began his professional career with the Low-A Vancouver Canadians. He was then transferred 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 ban for testing positive for methylhexanamine.
He finally joined the New Hampshire Fisher Cats on May 19, 2013. After the spring training camp with the Blue Jays, Marcus Stroman was the starting shot for the Triple-A rated Buffalo Bison on opening day.
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After making his debut for Toronto on his recall, he was re-elected on May 18th and called back on May 30th to make his first start in the Major League. Just over a week later, he threw the first nine innings of his career in a 3-2 defeat to the Detroit Tigers. He finished his first full game with an 8-0 win over the Chicago Cubs.
On September 6, he was suspended and fined for a scuffle with Baltimore’s Caleb Joseph. Stroman finished 2014 with an 11-6 record, 111 strikeouts, and an ERA of 3.65.
During spring training before the 2015 season, Marcus suffered an injury, an anterior cruciate ligament rupture in his left knee. During his rehabilitation period, he returned to Duke University to complete his education. In 2016, he would graduate with a bachelor’s degree in sociology.
He returned on 2 September 2015 with the Lansing Lugnuts Class A. On September 12, 2015, Marcus Stroman returned to the Blue Jays, where he pitched against the New York Yankees on September 12, 2015, and finished the year with a 4-0 record, 1.67 ERA, and a total of 18 strikeouts in 27 innings.
The Blue Jays’ pitcher started the 2016 season with a 5-3 win over the Tampa Bay Rays on opening day. Also on May 1st, Marcus recorded 9 strikeouts in a game against Tampa, the highest number of strikeouts ever recorded by a Blue Jays pitcher on his birthday. Three months later, he knocked out 13 clubs in a game against the Houston Astros and ended the 2016 season with a 9-10 record and an ERA of 4.37. By the end of the campaign, Marcus had also thrown a personal high of 204 innings, scoring 166 strikeouts. The Blue Jays also beat Baltimore on wild cards to advance to the 2016 American League Division Series and the 2016 American League Championship Series after defeating the Cleveland Indians.
He began his career in 2017 with an improved salary and scored the first goal of his career on 25 April 2017 with a 6-5 win over the St. Louis Cardinals. He continued to show impressive performances in matches against players like the Atlanta Braves. Marcus Stroman was forced to leave the game on September 2 against the Baltimore Orioles after being hit by a line drive at the elbow. Toronto would win the game 7-2 in his absence.
In the 2017 season, Stroman collected 13 wins and threw 201 innings. This made him the seventh Blue Jays pitcher to score 200 consecutive innings in the last 20 years. He also scored a 3.09 ERA and 164 strikeouts. His efforts for the campaign were enough to beat Chris Sale and Alex Cobb for the Golden Glove Award. He also received the Blue Jays’ Pitcher of the Year Award from the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
In 2017 Marcus represented the United States in the 2017 World Baseball Classic with 3 starts. In the final game against Puerto Rico, Stroman led the USA to an 8-0 victory and the first World Baseball Classic Championship ever. His name also made it into 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, which is why he is allowed to represent both countries at the World Baseball Classic. His father, Earl Stroman, works as a police officer in New York. Marcus’ parents, Earl and Adlin Auffant, ended their marriage when he was in fifth grade.
He has two siblings, a brother Jayden and a sister Sabria.
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Marcus Stroman Salary and Net worth
On February 14, 2017, Marcus Stroman won his arbitration, increasing his salary to $3.4 million. Although he lost the case in 2018, his salary was nevertheless increased 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 “Height Doesn’t Measure Heart” and “HDMH” trademark application process in January 2015, due to his relatively small height. Various sources put his net worth at $6 million.
Marcus Stroman’s Height, Weight, and Body Measurements
Stroman is specified by the MLB as 5 feet 8 inches tall, placing him in the elite group of only seven players in Major League Baseball who are shorter than 5 feet 10 inches. According to Marcus himself, he stands at 5 feet 7.25 inches.
The pitcher also has a respectable weight of 82 kg (180.8 lbs). Nothing more is known about his other body measurements.