Marcus Stroman feels ready to return to the mound for the New York Yankees, able to manage pain in his left knee stemming from a torn ACL a decade ago.
“It’s something that I try not to put in my head because if you’re just thinking about that 24/7, you’re not in a good place,” the 34-year-old right-hander said Saturday, a day before he faces the Athletics.
Stroman has not pitched for the Yankees since allowing five runs in two-thirds of an inning against San Francisco on April 11. In three rehab appearances with Double-A Somerset that began June 11, Stroman was 0-1 with a 6.97 ERA.
He allowed five runs, 10 hits and two walks over 3 2/3 innings on Wednesday against Detroit’s Erie Seawolves.
“I’m someone who definitely needs kind of the intensity to turn it on, so looking forward to kind of getting back out there,” Stroman said.
Stroman tore his ACL during a spring training fielding drill with Toronto on March 10, 2015, had surgery nine days later and returned to a big league mound that Sept. 19 when he beat the Yankees in a five-inning outing in the Bronx.
He credited Nikki Huffman, his personal trainer and Toronto’s head athletic trainer from 2018-19, with helping him manage the pain.
“It’s my ACL knee that I tore 10 years ago, so just figuring out how to deal with the soreness, the aching and then mechanically figuring out how to get away from kind of overdoing it into my knee.” Stroman said. “When I’m more efficient mechanically, my knee’s taking less stress.”
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Stroman started the season 0-1 with an 11.57 ERA in three starts. He rejoins a rotation missing ace Gerrit Cole (Tommy John surgery), AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil (strained right lat) and left-hander Ryan Yarbrough (strained right oblique).
“He’s got to command it. That’s the biggest thing, is being where he wants on the plate and having a presence on both sides of the plate — can’t just live one side,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “What is kind of the shapes of his pitches? Are is he crisp?”
Stroman was 10-9 with a 4.31 ERA in 29 starts and one relief appearance over 154 2/3 innings last season, his most since 2021 with the Mets. Stroman struggled in the second half and did not pitch in the postseason, when the Yankees made their first World Series appearance since 2009.
Boone discounted the last minor league outing.
“It was a smoking hot day in Somerset for a veteran guy that’s pitching in Somerset for his third one,” Boone said.
Reporting by The Associated Press.
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