Player Data: Age: 30, B/T: R/R

Primary Stats: 33 G (33 starts), 179 IP, 3.02 ERA, 1.145 WHIP, 10-13, 158 K, 44 BB

Advanced Stats: 133 ERA+, 21.6 K%, 6.0 BB%, 4.33 xERA, 4.57 FIP, 3.49 xFIP, 3.4 fWAR, 3.3 bWAR

2021 salary: $18,900,000

Grade: A

2021 Review

In the 2020 offseason Marcus Stroman accepted  a one-year, 18.9 million dollar qualifying offer to re-join the Mets. This would turn out to not only be smart for Marcus but also the Mets as “Stro” would go on to have one of the best seasons of his career.

There was plenty of uncertainty as to whether Stroman would re-sign with the club after opting out of the 2020 season without playing a single game. Marcus was one of the top pitchers on the entire market and could’ve cashed in on a big pay-day, but instead to the surprise of many accepted a one-year prove it deal with the team that made him look like an even bigger star by the end of it. Stroman cited Mets new owner Steve Cohen’s introduction presser as a big reason he accepted the deal saying “After watching the presser, I’m beyond excited to play for you sir”.

Stroman started the season as the Met’s #2 starter behind Jacob deGrom and was looking to for the first time as Met, really show that he was built for the city. In 2019, Marcus only played 11 games with the team with mixed results, and then missed all of 2020, making 2021 a make it or break it season for him in the Big Apple.

Marcus would kick-off that push with a fantastic start going six innings, three hits, and only one run allowed. Stro would follow this up with yet another great, albeit short, start (a trend for most of his season) going another six innings and allowing no runs on only four hits.

At the All-Star break, Marcus had a very arguable case to be the third Met’s pitcher named to the All Star team along with Jacob deGrom and Taijuan Walker but ultimately was not named to the team. His stats at the break saw him pitch to a 2.74 ERA in 98.2 innings with 83 strikeouts. He would very early on become Mr. Consistent for the team as he didn’t miss a single start and would routinely give the team at least six innings pitched (11 out of his 19 first half starts saw him go at least six).

The second half of the season would be more of the same for Stroman as he continued to be reliable for the team in the face of deGrom’s injury issues. As essentially the teams #1 starter for most of the second half Marcus would go at least five innings in every single start from July 16th to September 28th. He would only go 4-6 in 14 starts but more often than not he was keeping the Mets in every game. In fact, in those 14 starts he only allowed more than two runs in four of them. Simply put, Stroman was doing his part in trying to get the team back into the playoffs.

Stroman’s 33 starts was a MLB high and a massive accomplishment after pitching zero innings in the year prior. That tied his career best in a season but also resulted in him beating multiple personal best of his including ERA (3.02), strikeout rate (21.7), strikeouts per nine (7.9), and runs allowed per nine (3.52), among numerous other statistics.

Mandatory Credit: Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

As per usual with Stroman was his dominant ability to force ground balls, proven by his 52.6% ground-ball rate, good for fourth-best out of all starters in the MLB. Marcus would also continue to throw his sinker more than any other pitch at a high rate of 42.3%, 19.5% higher than his next most used pitch which was his slider. Interestingly Stroman threw his slider 8.1% more in 2019 (30.9%) than he did in 2021 which coincides with the 6% increase in his sinker (up from 36.3% in 2019).

As a whole, 2021 was one of Stroman’s best for a multitude of reasons. On the defensive side, he was nothing other than elite. On 51 defensive chances, 49 of them were successful outs giving Marcus a .961 fielding percentage. It’s not a stretch to say that Stro deserves his second career Gold Glove Award. On the batting side of things, Stroman would easily obtain the most at-bats of his career with 58 and bat .098 including five hits, two of which were extra base hits.

All in all, 2021 was a fantastic season for Stroman and if not for Jacob deGrom’s brilliance when he did pitch, would’ve made him the best pitcher on the team. Stro pitched at an very high level for the team this season and his consistency led to him not just being the defacto ace for the Mets for most of the season not missing a single start over the course of the year. For that reason I felt Marcus very much earned an overall grade of an A for the season. His elite defense and athleticism goes along with his fantastic pitching and high energy, and this made Stro one of the most fun players in the game in the watch and a bright spot on an underwhelming 2021 Mets team.

2022 Outlook

Going into the offseason, Stroman once again finds himself as a free agent, this time though with more money surely going to be thrown at him. Marcus will be turning just 31 next May, still very much so in his prime and coming off one of the best years of his career. As of the time of this writing rumors are that he is looking for a deal worth $25 million annually a minimum over the course of five to six years. If this is true, it seems unlikely that the team would be able to bring him back. I’d expect Stroman to come out next season and continue to prove that he’s one of the best starters in the game, and hopefully that’s with the Mets.