When you take into account the full picture of a player, particularly in terms of expectation, it’s hard to find an individual who had a more disappointing campaign for the Yankees than Marcus Stroman
in 2025. It got so bad to the point that the Yankees chose to release him to make room for deadline acquisitions at the beginning of August. That move is a byproduct of a tenure that, as a whole, certainly didn’t live up to expectations.
Stroman saw his WHIP skyrocket in 2024, and nearly every underlying metric indicated that his 4.31 ERA was on the lucky side of things. Still, he was able to cover 150 innings with numbers that weren’t terrible, and there was the smallest bit of optimism that he could improve his form in 2025 or that at least it could not get much worse. That optimism turned out to be unjustified.
Grade: F
2025 Statistics: 9 appearances, 3-2, 39 IP, 6.23 ERA (66 ERA+), 5.19 FIP, 5.00 xFIP, 14.9% K%, 9.1% BB%, 0.1 fWAR
2026 Contract Status: Released in August of 2025. Currently a free agent.
Joining DJ LeMahieu and Jonathan Loáisiga as the first F grades in our Roster Report Cards series, Stroman stands out among these three because LeMahieu and Loáisiga at least had their moments of glory in the Bronx, particularly LeMahieu. Stroman’s entire tenure won’t be looked at fondly.
With the unfortunate news that Gerrit Cole would be out for the year in spring and the lack of options in the market at that time, the Yankees needed a bit more from every single one of their in-house options. Carlos Rodón answered the call, Max Fried had as great a debut season in the Bronx as one could’ve imagined, but Stroman only lasted three bad starts in the rotation before hitting the shelf with left-knee inflammation. At the time, this move allowed Clarke Schmidt to be reintroduced to the rotation. It’s important to highlight this because Stroman said during spring that he was unwilling to pitch out of the bullpen, and by all means, he was the odd man out at that moment.
It wouldn’t be until late June that Stroman would make his return, and he actually looked quite solid, allowing three or fewer runs in his first four starts back. Prioritizing bullpen additions at the deadline, the Yankees trusted in-house options, and after back-to-back outings allowing four earned runs, Stroman was released, paving the way for Cam Schllitler to make a name for himself down the stretch. What now feels like an obvious choice could’ve certainly gone in a slightly different path, and who knows where Schlitter is at right now if that had happened? Shortly after Stroman’s release, Luis Gil came back into the fold and finished the year in the rotation.
One more wrinkle in Stroman’s campaign is that he had a vesting option built into his contract in case he pitched 140 or more innings in 2025, worth $14 million. At the time of his release, it was already impossible to reach that target, but it was certainly in the minds of Yankee fans at the start of the year. Had Stroman stayed healthy the whole season, it’s very difficult to imagine a scenario in which management would’ve allowed him to reach that tally.
