TORONTO – Be it strutting while starring for the United States at the World Baseball Classic, chest-thumping on the mound after a complete game in Anaheim or losing it on Will Little after a chintzy ejection, Marcus Stroman’s emotion-driven antics have certainly given him a new look this year.
The Toronto Blue Jays right-hander makes no apologies for feeling like he’s earned the right to let it all out as opponents, observers, fans and, now, umpires all tsk-tsk away. None of that is of consequence to the 26-year-old, who after being more subdued during his first three years in the big leagues, is now determined to do things his way in a hidebound baseball culture that stifles swag.
“I’m more confident and more comfortable for sure – I’m being myself,” Stroman says. “When you come up sometimes it’s hard to be yourself being a young guy. Now I feel like I’m settled in, I can play and be myself, there’s no reason to hold back. None of it is ill-natured by any means. It’s things that I need to do, talk to myself, to get myself in the moment, to get myself up for a particular pitch and it’s not going to change going forward. I’m always going to be myself day in and day out, and nobody can sway that.”
From a performance perspective, there’s no arguing with the results thus far, even after Thursday’s three-run, six-walk mess in an 8-4, 10-inning Blue Jays win over Oakland ended with his ejection by home-plate umpire Little in the fifth inning. With a 3.08 ERA in 131.1 innings over 21 starts, Stroman is in the midst of his best season to date, a pillar for a rotation ravaged by injuries this year.
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If Stroman’s cocksure mannerisms are the fuel for his gains, keep riding the wave.
Still, the flip side to that lies in the reactions of opponents with ruffled feathers, like the Angels back in April, or umpires like Little who aren’t willing to tolerate any sass about their strike zone.
Fairly or not, Stroman is going to periodically run into some storms, even amid some subtle shifts of what’s tolerable and what’s not.
“I feel like the game is starting to come along and it’s because of the wave of young guys and the culture that we have coming up,” says Stroman. “The game is starting to get younger and a lot of the superstars are guys who are in their early 20s. They’re starting to be themselves, they’re starting to play with the emotion they want to play with, the passion they want to play with, and by doing so I think it brings them to their top-notch ability.
“You’re starting to see guys do special things around the league and I’m all for emotion, man. I couldn’t care less if someone pimps a homer off me – I gave it up at the end of the day. But I feel like showing emotion and passion is part of the game and by doing so you’re able to play at your most elite level.”
Asked if the way Thursday’s game played out could have been partly a display of baseball’s lingering unease with emotional displays, Stroman, replied, “No comment, no comment.”
Other evidence of baseball’s resistance to celebratory antics is easy to find.
San Francisco Giants reliever Hunter Strickland plunked Bryce Harper earlier this season over a grudge about how the Washington Nationals all-star celebrated a couple of homers off him during the 2014 NLDS.
Jose Bautista infuriated the Atlanta Braves back in May when he stared at Eric O’Flaherty and then flipped his bat in a blowout loss, taking retribution from starter Julio Teheran in his first at-bat the next day.
And just this week, Jason Grilli did one of his patented fist pumps off the mound after striking out Giancarlo Stanton to end a 10-4 Texas Rangers win, with the Miami Marlins star mimicking the veteran reliever the next day when he launched a 468-foot homer off him.
“That was just for his reaction last night,” Stanton told reporters. “When you have a reaction like that in a game that doesn’t matter, if that out is not the deciding factor in the game, then I’m going to do the same.”
Veteran Blue Jays reliever Joe Smith made his big-league debut in 2007 with a “pretty emotional” New York Mets team that “got yelled at a lot for the home run celebrations outside of the dugout.”
The tolerance for such displays has evolved, he believes, but quickly adds, “I think there’s a line.”
“Certain stuff is acceptable and not acceptable whether it be pimping home runs or fist-pumping off the mound like you just won Game 7 or something like that,” Smith continues. “Guys end up taking it personal, whether you like it or not. …
“In the old school you harnessed emotion unless it was a huge moment or something. Now, you see more emotion and I wouldn’t say it’s a bad thing. … It’s just a different game now. It doesn’t make it bad, necessarily.”
Not if it works for the player, and as long as there are no repercussions for his teammates.
Drawing a direct correlation between Stroman’s emotional displays and his improved pitching is impossible, but he really believes it’s making a difference.
“It’s a combination of things,” says catcher Russell Martin. “Maturity is probably coming into play a little bit, him just making adjustments from start to start and getting a better feel for his pitches and stuff. But he’s had a good head on his shoulders this year, and there are times when he could kind of let things get out of control, he’s stepped back, taken some deep breaths and taken control.
“He’s using those emotions and feeding off them.”
Like it or not, everybody better get used to it.
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