Credit: Joe Camporeale-USA TODAY Sports
The San Diego Padres are looking to add a veteran starter this offseason. According to the San Diego Union Tribune, Marcus Stroman‘s name has been mentioned in preliminary deliberations.
Stroman would provide a solid floor of innings to a Padres team that relied on Jake Arrieta and Vince Velasquez to make important starts down the stretch. They’ll have two pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery along with Chris Paddack who is already dealing with a slight UCL tear.
The 30-year-old free agent pitcher has also been linked to the Chicago Cubs. NBC Sports Chicago claims “they’ve had their eye on him for years.”
The Mets and Stroman have not started talks but team president Sandy Alderson said last week that he’s valued “very highly” by the organization for the way he performed in 2021 after not pitching at all in 2020.
Stroman said he is open to returning to the Mets.
Stroman finished his seventh season in the majors 10-13 with a 3.02 ERA, leading the league with 33 games started. He threw 179.0 innings and is a strong candidate to win his second Gold Glove award.
