Blue Jays not likely to reunite with former fan favorite, Yankees castoff

The Toronto Blue Jays starting staff could use some reinforcing, but fans hoping for a reunion with a former hero shouldn't hold their breath.

It was a rough 2024 for Toronto. While the Blue Jays seemed poised to build on back-to-back playoff appearances and four consecutive winning seasons, the team instead dropped into the American League East basement — 20 games behind the hated New York Yankees.

While first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. does what he does, leading the Blue Jays in every offensive category of note, many of his teammates struggled throughout the entire season.

Toronto's pitching staff did what it could and benefitted from Jose Berrios' renaissance, but the deadline trade of Yusei Kikuchi to the Houston Astros and Alek Manoah's continued nebulous nature has the Blue Jays heading into the offseason shorthanded among their starters.

Late in the season, whispers began around Rogers Centre that a reunion between Toronto and fan favorite Marcus Stroman could be in the works this winter.

Stroman began his Major League Baseball career with "Canada's Team," pitching five-plus seasons and posting a 47-45 record before he was shipped off to the New York Mets in a 2019 deadline day trade.

The two-time All-Star and one-time Gold Glove Award winner pitched three-plus seasons in the National League with the Mets and Chicago Cubs (opting out of the 2020 COVID-shortened season) before returning to the AL with the Yankees on a two-year, $37 million contract last January.

The 33-year-old pitched well for New York over the first two months of the 2024 campaign and held a 5-2 record with a 2.60 ERA after beating the San Francisco Giants on May 31.

But it all went askew from there. After posting an 8.80 ERA in four September starts and finishing with a 10-9 mark, Stroman was left off the Yankees' postseason roster.

With Stroman seemingly no longer a part of New York's future plans, there has been a groundswell in Toronto to bring the team's one-time staff ace back north of the border.

However, according to FanSided's Christopher Kline, that option appears to be "already off the table."

The rationale is that Toronto general manager Ross Atkins will have no appetite to trade for a player he once traded away, even if New York's asking price to acquire Stroman may be paltry, with the FanSided piece hinting at a "tainted relationship" between the player and GM.

Stroman is due $18.3 million for next season, with a club option for another $18.3 million in 2026, according to Spotrac . In today's market, that's a fairly affordable sum for a proven starter with a career ERA of 3.72.

Perhaps Blue Jays fans might want to shift their reunion hopes to Kikuchi, who is a free agent this winter after a stellar rental appearance with the Houston Astros.

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