Ranking the 10 worst contracts in the National League Central

No. 7: Marcus Stroman, $65M remaining

Joining Suzuki in the Windy City was Stroman, a pitcher who succeeds more on control than velocity, an unusual concept in today’s power-hungry game.  It’s worked for him, however, as his career ERA of 3.67 is 15% better than an average pitcher over that span.  Consider Stroman spent much of that time in the American League East facing the behemoths of the Bronx and Boston, and his results look even better.

So what is the risk profile for Stroman?  Well, he’s a pitcher, so there’s an automatic concern that a shoulder, UCL, or some other body part will simply break from the burden of throwing a baseball thousands and thousands of times each season.  Stroman made four trips to the injured list prior to this year.  One was back in 2015 and wiped out most of that season, but of the other three, only one of them was for more than 20 days, so he’s not an especially concerning injury risk.

Stroman is off to a mediocre start to the year, with a 4.88 ERA through his first six starts and 31-1/3 innings, a higher mark than he’s posted since 2018.  It’s likely he’ll his performance will come back in line with prior years, but again, he’s a pitcher, so risk is an ingrained part of his profile.