TAMPA — Here’s a thought experiment that I ran by Aaron Boone after the Yankees manager finished addressing reporters about Marcus Stroman on Friday morning: What if SNY told me that I was no longer a writer, but the staff accountant? What if the Yankees told Boone that they now viewed him as a coach?
And what if we both knew ourselves well enough to see those decisions as mistakes?
The point is, wouldn’t we rather have Stroman say, as he did on Friday, “I won’t pitch in the bullpen. I’m a starter,” than lie and say he was willing to do anything his employer wanted?
“Yeah,” Boone said. “I wouldn’t want someone to lie.”
He added of Stroman’s comments, which came nearly six weeks before the Yankees need to finalize their April starting rotation: “This is a nothing burger to me right now. It’s irrelevant right now.”
The knee-jerk fan reaction when a player expresses a preference like Stroman did (or exercises a collectively bargained right to skip two early spring workouts), is often to criticize the player as selfish, and to side with management. You know the line: We’d play this game for free, and this guy is making millions and complains about it?
But the view from here shows at least two ways to see this: 1) it is honorable and ultimately rewarding to subjugate oneself to a greater or group cause (i.e. go to the bullpen if it helps the Yankees) OR 2) people should stand up for their belief in themselves and advocate for their self-interest.
There is enough gray area in the Stroman/Yankees situation to make a reasonable case for either of the above as our primary takeaway. For that matter, there is enough complexity in Stroman’s entire public life to view him in myriad and contradictory ways.
Do I like that he repeatedly demeans my profession online, including on Friday when he tweeted, “Loudest talk from the smallest minds … media just trying to make a story out of absolutely nothing?” Of course not. But one does appreciate an honest answer to a direct question, like the one that he gave earlier in the day.
And for that matter, Stroman’s media criticism isn’t always off base, like when he rightfully called out broadcaster Bob Brenly in 2021 for making a joke about his du-rag that had, as Stroman put it, “racist overtones.” I just wish he wouldn’t lump us all into that reactionary category. But we digress.
“I want players to be authentic and honest,” Yankees general manager Brian Cashman said. “They should be allowed to have a platform to speak their minds and share what they are thinking. It’s not an easy platform to perform in. Most people don’t have their jobs covered on a daily basis, with successes and failures or perceptions or opinions. And so I think it’s more difficult when you try to steer their opinions in the way you want them to be steered.”
Cashman made a point that I try to keep in mind in situations like this: How would I feel if my boss tried to assign me to a role in which I wasn’t comfortable? How have I behaved in those situations? Am I always a perfect team player? No, obviously. To be human is to battle selfishness.
I can also understand why a ballplayer would (as some privately have), disapprove of Stroman’s decisions this week to sit out two days of camp and then state his unwillingness to work as a reliever. Plenty of these guys derive real meaning from the “there’s no I in team” cliche.
Another point expressed in private at Yankees camp: After handling his demotion to the bullpen last season with supreme professionalism, even as he went unused for the entire postseason, why would Stroman risk bringing negative attention on himself, when he could have just done his PFP with everyone else and politely declined to discuss his status as the odd man out in the team’s starting rotation?
Then there were the others, like Gerrit Cole and Max Fried, who greeted Stroman with hugs and smiles that were clearly authentic. People here like Stroman. Boone himself said, “I love Stro” — and he meant it.
Like we said: There are many ways to view this situation. For all his complexities, we can’t deny that Marcus Stroman, first as a Met and then as a Yankee, has always forced us to think.
