Chicago Cubs Ace Now Expected to Remain with Team Through 2024 Season
The Chicago Cubs may have one piece of the rotation puzzle figured out for the 2024 MLB season.
After a hot start to the season, Marcus Stroman has struggled both on the mound and with injury.
With those factors now in play, Stroman is expected to exercise his 2024 player option to remain with the Cubs through next season according to USA Today.
Stroman began the season on a hot-streak unlike anything seen on the North Side in years.
Through the months of March to June, Stroman posted a 2.47 ERA in 101 innings pitched. Then July came and so did the downfall.
In 26.2 innings pitched in July, Stroman posted a 9.11 ERA with a bloated 1.838 WHIP. Injury likely played a factor in that, but while the first half of the season brought talk of a career revival and hitting the free agent market as a top option, July brought more questions.
Now in late September, Stroman just took the mound for the first time on Saturday against the Colorado Rockies. It was the return anyone was hoping for after giving up three earned runs in 3.0 innings pitched.
Chicago still pulled off the win and kept their Wild Card dreams alive, but it had nothing to do with Stroman and everything to do with a lockdown bullpen performance and an offensive outburst.
It comes as little surprise that Stroman is now expected to exercise his $21 million option and play without an extension.
If the Cubs can get anything that resembles Stroman's first half of 2023 in 2024, it may be money well spent, especially given the thin starting pitching market.
Winning and the postseason also helps in decision like these.
