As the MLB trade deadline gets closer and closer (set for Tuesday, August 1, at 6 p.m. Eastern), players will be flying off the market. Teams who think they have a shot will be trying as hard as they can to improve their roster. The big need continues to be pitching and, even if your team has good arms, there is a saying in baseball that you can never have too much pitching.
This season, there seems to be a handful of names at least on the starting front for teams to bid for with rumors flying around Dylan Cease, Blake Snell, and Justin Verlander, just to name a few.
Another player in that group is Marcus Stroman. With his high ground ball rate and consistency throughout the first half, Stroman, on a Chicago Cubs team that might look to sell even with their recent surge, could find himself on a playoff-bound team within just a few days.
MLB rumors: Could Marcus Stroman’s trade value take a hit?
But with his recent start against the Chicago White Sox, where he gave up seven earned runs in 3.1 innings pitched, Stroman could be hurting his and the Cubs’ trade value come deadline day. Jesse Rogers, who covers the Cubs for ESPN, pointed out that the last time this happened to the 32-year-old, his ERA and opponent’s batting average took a turn for the worse.
Tonight is the 2nd time in Marcus Stroman's career he's given up at least 7 earned runs in fewer than 4 IP. The other was on June 19, 2016. He was on a Cy Young track. First 16 starts=2.28 ERA and .191 BA against. Last 6=8.00 ERA and .308 BA.
— Jesse Rogers (@JesseRogersESPN) July 27, 2023
Now while 2016 may seem like too long ago to bring this up, this result actually connects to this season, one that has recently flipped upside down for the right-hander. Over his last five starts, Stroman has given up 17 earned runs in 23.2 innings. Before this stretch, he was on pace to be one of the ERA leaders in the National League.
General managers know this and that alone might prompt a lot of contending teams to consider taking the Cubs off their phone line, at least for the remainder of the deadline. If this year trends in the way 2016 did, a bad second half when teams need their players to perform the most isn’t going to cut it come pennant race time.
So with that, could Stroman’s outing likely hurt the Cubs’ trade value? He and Cody Bellinger are pretty much the only players on the north side of Chicago that are getting long looks with trade attention. If Stroman is sliding, that’s one out of two players, leaving only Bellinger as good trade bait. Has Chicago waited too long to trade Stroman? If so, his value, according to the trends we have seen, will only go down from here.