Marcus Stroman

Marcus Earl Stroman (born May 1, 1991) is an American professional baseball pitcher who is a free agent. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Toronto Blue Jays, New York Mets, Chicago Cubs, and New York Yankees. Stroman's height is listed at 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m), making him one of only six pitchers shorter than 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) to make a start at the MLB level in the 21st century.

Stroman attended Duke University, and played college baseball for the Duke Blue Devils. He was drafted by the Blue Jays in the first round of the 2012 MLB draft. He made his MLB debut with the Blue Jays in 2014. He won a 2017 Gold Glove Award. Stroman was named an All-Star in 2019, and the Blue Jays traded him to the Mets later in the 2019 season. He signed a three-year contract for the Cubs prior to the 2022 season and opted out of his third year at the end of the 2023 season.

On the international level, Stroman has represented both the United States and Puerto Rican national teams. With the U.S. in 2017, he was named the World Baseball Classic MVP and was named to the All-World Baseball Classic Team.

Early life

Stroman was born in Medford, New York, on May 1, 1991, to Earl Stroman and Adlin Auffant, who divorced when he was in the fifth grade. His mother is Puerto Rican, making him eligible to represent Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. His father is a police detective in Suffolk County, New York. Stroman has a brother, Jayden, and sister, Sabria. His cousin, Erskine Kelley, played minor league baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates and Chicago Cubs organizations.

In 1997, a six-year-old Stroman made an appearance on the Nickelodeon game show Figure It Out.