Everybody here knows the story about Marcus Stroman and his life growing up in New York. He actually played ball on a travel team with one of my best friends. I really wanted to focus on his time in a Mets uniform this season and some of the changes I would like to see made by him for 2020. Even though it is a small sample size, I found some interesting things regarding some of his pitches and his approach as a whole.

For the purpose of this article, I’m going to focus on his three primary pitches, his slider, sinker, and cutter. Before we begin, here are the game log breakdowns for his time in Toronto and New York this season.

Slider

Without a doubt, the biggest difference in approach after the trade was the usage rate of Marcus’ slider. This season, my guy went from throwing his slider 35.2% of the time in Toronto to just 21.4% in New York. It’s very odd that an all-star pitcher would make this change on his own, considering his slider was by far his most dominant pitch this season (tallying an absurd 21.1 pVAL). The movement on his slider generally sits at 11 inches away from RHH and drops 38 inches. In comparison, the league average movement is 6 inches with a 37-inch drop. Another positive on his slider was that the spin rate increased to 2838 rpm’s compared to 2659 rpm’s in 2018.

Granted, Stroman does tend to throw his slider primarily ahead in the count, and while his F-Strike% did decrease by almost a full 8% after the trade, that doesn’t explain such a drastic difference in the lack of sliders thrown in a Met uniform. One thing I would love to see in 2020, is the Mets let Stroman loose with his slider. He made such major improvements with the pitch during the 2018 offseason and it has really become some of the best stuff he possesses.

Sinker

While not as drastic as his slider, another change in approach after the trade was Stromans’ fastball usage. Believe it or not, Stroman really hasn’t had much success with his sinker since about 2017. With the rate jumping from 34.6% to 43.1% after the deal, Marcus sported a .374 baa on his sinker in a Mets uniform. Scary hours. The pitch was actually trending in the right direction before the trade, and while I don’t expect Marcus to just abandon the pitch, I would love to see him mix in some more four-seamers. It might not be the most popular opinion, especially since he hasn’t thrown a bulk of four-seamers since his rookie season but making that a legit option in his repertoire could yield some better results for his sinking fastball.

Cutter

Marcus’ cutter was his one pitch that improved after the trade. Like I said above, while we are talking about a small sample size here, something is to be said after close to 60 innings pitched. Struggling with the pitch in Toronto to a BAA of .351, that number dropped to a minuscule BAA of .217. Awesome stuff here from Stro. Not only did the usage rate increase on two strikes versus LHH (23% in Toronto to 50% in New York), but Stroman also started using the pitch in all different counts. Keeping batters guessing, Stroman benefited from the element of surprise with this cutter which is something I would love to see more of in 2020.

No Long Talk

It’s obvious that I just scratched the surface here when it comes to Stroman and his repertoire (expect a deeper dive later in the offseason), but my main goal was for you guys to enjoy reading something about the Mets on the second straight day with no baseball. I think Marcus can really bounce back in 2020 for the Mets, especially with some minor tweaks in his game plan. I wonder how much of what he did in a Mets uniform was effected by the organization or even by Mickey. I would love for him to be able to be himself and pitch his game. He’s such a competitor and such a feel pitcher that you can’t really hold a guy like him back.

I hope you guys enjoyed. Shoot me a follow on twitter – @MikeAnthony3416 – for some more Mets content.