TORONTO – It doesn’t take long for Marcus Stroman to make his presence felt.
In Toronto to visit his Blue Jays teammates, Stroman spent Saturday morning “bopping around the clubhouse” and reconnecting with the likes of Aaron Sanchez and Mark Buehrle. He even dropped in on John Gibbons’ daily media session to explain why he’s still hopeful of a 2015 return and offer details on a recovering left knee that now feels “unbelievable.”
“I know Gibby needed a little pressure taken off of him,” Stroman joked upon entering Gibbons’ office.
“Exactly,” Gibbons replied. “Thank you very much.”
The left ACL injury sustained in a Spring Training fielding drill has healed to the point that Stroman can walk comfortably and, as of three days ago, throw a baseball without a brace. He’s rehabbing his knee while completing his sociology degree at Duke University, and the daily four-hour rehab sessions are paying off.
“It feels great,” Stroman said. “We’re putting in the work and the results are showing.”
Stroman can now do full squats and deadlifts, and he’s in the pool a few times per week trying to strengthen his left leg to the level it was at when he injured it a little more than nine weeks ago. He hopes to resume running within the next couple of months, but in the meantime he’s adjusting to a surgically repaired left knee that now bears a large scar.
“It feels like I have a new leg almost, a new knee,” Stroman said.
Along with the physical rehabilitation, Stroman is taking a full summer courseload at Duke. It’s a balancing act that has him busy all day long, but he’s enjoying it.
“It’s awesome. It’s another journey in my life. I’m not upset at all,” he said. “Once I found out that I’d torn my ACL even before the MRI I called my mom and I told her ‘let’s get this school process going’ because I knew that it would be a perfect opportunity to rehab at Duke and get my degree. So I’m excited for this journey. It’s very intense. It’s a different atmosphere than waking up, going to the ballpark to get my work in. It’s probably the hardest grind that I’ve ever done in my life to be honest with you.”
Stroman’s taking courses in intellectual property and hip hop cinema while also undertaking an independent study on the portrayal of male and female athletes in the media.
“Damn, that’s over my head,” Gibbons joked.
Stroman’s classes have about 12-15 students, but the Duke campus is much different from Toronto in that he doesn’t get stopped for photos or autographs much.
“I just kind of slide under the radar, go to class, I feel like I’m a freshman again,” he said. “It’s kind of weird. I’ve got my backpack on, walking through the quad, it’s crazy. It feels like I’m in 2009 when I first entered Duke.”
It’s not what Stroman hoped for entering the year — he had intended to build off of an impressive rookie season in which he posted a 3.65 ERA in 130.2 innings. Even so, he’s embracing the challenge.
“It’s an awesome process, an awesome journey, but I’m enjoying every step of the way,” he said. “It sounds weird, but I’m enjoying it.”
In the meantime, he stays in touch with his teammates, watches games when possible and checks up on box scores and highlights to fill in the gaps. Watching the Blue Jays play can be ‘bittersweet’ for Stroman, but he makes sure to tune in whenever Sanchez starts. While Stroman would love to be out there pitching alongside his friend, he tries not to focus on the missed opportunity.
“I’m not worried at all,” he said. “Not at all. Because I know what I’m going to come back and do next year, so I’m not worried at all by that. The things that I’m doing now, the training I’m doing, I’m going to be in a position, my body’s going to be better than it ever has before. I’m not only working my knee, I’m working my entire body, so I know that next year will be a big year for me and I’m going to pick up right where I left off.”
And who knows, if the rehab process keeps going well there’s some chance he could return in 2015. Gibbons downplayed the possibility without ruling it out, but Stroman comes right out and says it: he wants to pitch for the Blue Jays down the stretch.
“That’s in my mindset,” he said. “Every day I wake up it’s obviously to be back pitching this year in Toronto. That’s my mindset, that’s what I pride myself on and that’s what’s in the back of my mind, doing everything that I’m doing. We’ll see what happens, I can’t come out and give you a for sure answer, but the way I’m progressing, I’m throwing already and I feel great, so we’ll see what happens.”
As much as the Blue Jays enjoy having Stroman’s personality around, getting his arm back would be an ever bigger boost for a team in need of all the pitching it can get. But first, the Blue Jays must play well enough that it would make a difference.