Marcus Stroman became the second Mets player to opt out of the remainder of the 2020 season on Monday.
The right-hander, currently on the injured list while recovering from a calf tear, cited high-risk family members, including his grandmother, and the COVID outbreaks within the Marlins and Cardinals clubhouses as contributing factors in his decision to sit out the rest of the season.
“It just ended up being a collective family decision for me,” he said. “Something that’s been weighing on me daily. I just ended up sitting with my family and weighing all the possibilities and realizing that there’s too many uncertainties, too many unknowns right now.”
The Mets’ specific handling of coronavirus protocols was not a factor is Stroman’s decision.
“The Mets have done an incredible job here,” he said.
Stroman was looking forward to a big platform year before becoming a free agent this winter. He’ll still hit the market, having crossed the six-year service time threshold on July 31, but his most recent body of work will be the 2019 season.
After he was acquired from the Toronto Blue Jays on July 28, Stroman posted a 3.77 ERA in 11 starts. He was set to assume the No. 2 role in the Mets’ rotation following the departure of Zack Wheeler and injury to Noah Syndergaard before succumbing to an ailment of his own just before the start of the shortened season.
“I’m back to 100 percent,” Stroman said of his calf. “I threw five innings, 85 pitches in my last sim game, felt really good. I’ve been working extremely hard with the staff these past few weeks to get back on the field. So this is not something I wanted, this was a collective decision.”
Yoenis Céspedes became the first Mets player to opt out of the season on Aug. 2.
In Stroman’s absence, the Mets plugged rookie David Peterson into the fifth spot in the starting rotation and the left-hander has been arguably the team’s second-best option behind Jacob deGrom.
With Michael Wacha landing on the injured list on Sunday and Stroman now unavailable to replace him, Peterson appears to have guaranteed himself a major league job for the foreseeable future. After him, Brodie Van Wagenen will have to piece the underperforming group together.
“Right now we’ll take inventory, so to speak,” Van Wagenen said. “We’ll work with the pitching coaches, we’ll have a sit-down. But we were living and surviving without Marcus. He’s such a big part of who we are, both in terms of not only his talent but his energy, and we’ll miss him.
“What this team has shown already and what I’m confident they’ll do going forward is have the next man stand up and keep fighting.”
