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The New York Yankees moved on from Marcus Stroman a month ago, and no contender wanted to take the gamble. That silence has spoken louder than any headline. As of the first week of September, Stroman remains unsigned, which means he is ineligible to pitch in the 2025 postseason.

For a league where September depth can often make the difference between heartbreak and a parade, the fact that Stroman’s name never came up as a serious addition feels like a flashing red warning sign.

A Market That Never Materialized

When the Yankees cut ties with Stroman on August 1, it wasn’t hard to imagine a team in the playoff mix taking a flyer. After all, pitching attrition always defines the final two months of a season. Injuries mount, rotations wobble, and executives often scramble for veterans who can give them even four or five serviceable innings.

But that market never developed for Stroman. His Yankees tenure ended with a 4.69 ERA in just 39 innings, most of it after returning from a knee injury that cost him nearly two months. The strikeout rate for 2025, 14.9%, was alarmingly low. The velocity dipped, the margin for error narrowed, and his signature sinker no longer induced ground balls at the elite rate that once made him so reliable.

Those numbers didn’t scare teams off by themselves. Plenty of contenders could’ve lived with an aging arm who eats innings. What scared them off was the idea that Stroman’s decline is more permanent than temporary.

Look around the landscape, and the fit seemed obvious. The Dodgers have been scouring the waiver wire to cover injuries to their rotation. The Mariners watched Bryan Woo and George Kirby deal with inconsistencies in August. The Braves lost A.J. Smith-Shawver to Tommy John surgery and haven’t had a reliable fifth starter all year. Even the Orioles and Phillies, two division leaders, quietly explored depth options as August wore on.

Each of those clubs had an open lane to Stroman. None of them took it. That kind of across-the-board disinterest is unusual. In the past, big names with fading résumés still found lifelines in late August. Justin Verlander landed in Houston under the old waiver rules. Yuli Gurriel played postseason games for Kansas City just last year. Stroman didn’t even get a minor league showcase deal.

A Career at a Crossroads

For Stroman, 34, this moment is about more than missing October. It’s about what comes next. He pitched more than 1,400 innings of 3.79 ERA ball across 11 seasons with Toronto, New York, and Chicago. He logged 29 starts with a 4.31 ERA as recently as 2024. That résumé suggests he should still have a place in Major League Baseball.

But front offices no longer operate on reputation. They look at declining strikeouts, reduced velocity, and mounting injuries, and they draw a conclusion: the pitcher who once thrived on guile and command has reached the end of that line.

Stroman can still sign somewhere in September, but he’ll only be auditioning for 2026. His postseason clock has stopped. And for contenders, the message has been clear—whatever help they need, it won’t come from Stroman.

In a month when every extra arm is usually hoarded like gold, the fact that Stroman was left on the shelf may be the most damning verdict of all.

Alvin Garcia Born in Puerto Rico, Alvin Garcia is a sports writer for Heavy.com who focuses on MLB. His work has appeared on FanSided, LWOS, NewsBreak, Athlon Sports, and Yardbarker, covering mostly MLB. More about Alvin Garcia

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