Toronto Blue Jays: Is Marcus Stroman ready to be an ace?

The question of the day for not just fans of the Toronto Blue Jays, but baseball fans in general, is this: Is Marcus Stroman ready to become an ace at just 24 years old?

Being that this is his third season in the majors, the Toronto Blue Jays right-hander made the Opening Day start for the Blue Jays Monday, and he didn’t disappoint fans of the team from Canada in his first start of the season against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field.

Stroman, who stands at 5-8 and weighs 180 pounds, pitched eight innings, where he allowed three earned runs on six hits and one walk. He struck out five, allowed one home run and hit none of the 32 Tampa Bay batters he faced.

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Game one should be considered a success for Stroman as the Blue Jays gained the win, and he continued to build his case for being considered an ace all throughout baseball, not just with Toronto.

Gregor Chisholm of MLB.com quoted Stroman in a recent article about becoming the Blue Jays ace, and how he wants to be viewed by his teammates when on the mound:

“That a bulldog lion is going out to the mound, is going to give it everything he’s got …Someone who doesn’t want to give the ball up and someone who they know is going to go deep into games and just kind of leave it all out there on the field.”

After seeing those quotes, Stroman has the mentality to be an ace, and as he said that before Opening Day, he did back up those words with his performance in the first game of the season.

The righty has the pedigree in this conversation of being “an ace,” as he was a former first-round selection, and he has pitched 19.1 innings in the postseason. In the ’15 postseason, Stroman had an ERA of 4.19 in three games. In those games, he gave up 22 hits, 10 runs (nine earned), one home run and four walks.

In those pressure-packed games last postseason, Stroman, who missed most of the ’15 regular season with an ACL injury, struck out 10 batters and had one wild pitch against the 84 batters he faced, for a WHIP of 1.345, while having a 4.7 K/9 and 2.50 K/BB.

The shortened four-game regular season in ’15 saw Stroman go 4-0 in his four starts, where in 27 innings pitched he allowed five earned runs, but he did have 18 strikeouts, with a 6.0 K/9 and 3.0 BB/9, as his WAR was 1.3.

Now, this conversation depends on what you consider an ace pitcher to be. Does he have to get wins? Does he have to be a flame-thrower, have good control or just be a natural-born leader when he toes the rubber every fifth day?

My belief is a mixture of all of those categories makes for a solid starter. Not every ace in the majors will have stuff like Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw, and not every ace will be like Hall of Famer Greg Maddux, who didn’t have the speed, but his control around the plate was second to none.

Stroman has just one season in the majors with at least 20 starts, that coming in ’14, where he had exactly the aforementioned 20 starts and appeared in 26 games that rookie season. In the ’14 season, Stroman was 11-6 in 130.2 innings pitched. In those innings of work, he allowed 53 earned runs, but tallied 111 strikeouts and 28 walks.

The Blue Jays pitcher faced 534 batters that rookie season, where he had a WHIP of 1.171 with a 7.6 K/9 and 3.96 K/BB, as he built a WAR of 2.0.

Now, back to the original question: is Stroman an ace?

I believe he is, and his numbers are backing that up. As he continues to get more starts under his belt, the answer to that question will become even clearer. Don’t forget, he’s not a huge strikeout guy, so don’t expect him to put up Chris Sale-type of strikeout numbers, but do expect him to face his opposition to hit ground balls as his way of gaining outs.

Remember this about Stroman as well … he has a vast variety of pitches he can throw to the plate, those being a fastball slider, cutter, curveball and changeup.

FanGraphs.com has Stroman throwing his curveball 48.5 percent of the time in ’15, followed by his slider at 16.4 percent and changeup in 12.3 percent of the pitches his threw. His fastball averages around 92.9 MPH, while his slider velocity is 86.4 and his cutter is 82.8. Also, the velocity of his changeup is at 83.7.

Stroman’s next scheduled start is a home matchup against the Boston Red Sox on Friday, April 8, where he’ll face Boston hitters, whom he’s had some quality success against for the most part. Two batters who have fared well against Stroman are Dustin Pedroia, who has a .571 batting average and one RBI in seven at-bats against Stroman, and Brock Holt, who is batting .286 in 14 at-bats against the right-hander.

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As this early season continues, we should really be able to see Stroman not just show everyone he is an ace, but he should show just how good of an ace he can become in the near future. With the success he’s had thus far, and his ability to overcome something like his ACL injury from last season, we know he’ll put in the necessary work in to stay the best pitcher on the Blue Jays roster and one of the top pitchers in the American League.

So the answer is yes, in my book, Stroman is an ace, and he’s going to be one everyone knows about in the very near future.

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