Mets' Marcus Stroman exudes confidence, expects to be 'dominant'
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Even in a room full of major-leaguers — world-class athletes who are inherently competitive and confident — Marcus Stroman stands out for those very characteristics.
Take his news conference Thursday at Clover Park as an example. In discussing his offseason regimen, his expectations for 2020 and his comfort level with the Mets after spending two months with them last year, among other topics, Stroman made it clear that he is not lacking in self-belief.
A sampling:
* “I think I’m the best on the field whenever I’m out there — always. That’s how I was raised by my father and it’s how I continue to be.”
* “I think I’m going to be good — really good. I think I should be dominant.”
* “I think I have the best core [muscles] in the league. I do. I put a lot of work into that.”
* “I'm going to go out there and throw 200-plus innings this year and be dominant.”
* “The more pressure it is, the more I lock it in. I'm not scared of any moment. I fear nobody.”
* “I also have the best sinker in the league.”
Stroman, a Medford native who spends most of his offseason in Tampa, deflected when it came to his individual goals. But he said he wants to throw at least 200 innings — if he reaches that total, everything else will be fine, he said — on the way to a Mets championship.
Part of Stroman’s confidence comes from the work he put in with Nikki Huffman, his personal athletic trainer/strength coach/physical therapist. Stroman worked with Huffman at Duke (his alma mater) as he rehabbed his torn anterior cruciate ligament in 2015, then “brought her over to the Blue Jays,” he said.
This offseason, she left Toronto and Stroman hired her.
“I kind of pulled her from the Blue Jays because that’s what I needed to do,” he said. “She knows my body better than anyone . . . With her in my corner, I feel like I can't lose.”
Rhame’s rough rehab
When reliever Jacob Rhame’s 2019 ended with ulnar nerve transposition surgery in mid-August, his offseason of injuries was just beginning.
The same day he had the elbow operation, he broke his left foot — by stepping on a water bottle cap in his hotel room, turning a stress fracture he didn’t know about into a full-fledged break.
“It felt and sounded like glass breaking,” Rhame said. “It hurt like hell.”
Except he didn’t know immediately that his foot was broken. After that initial hellish pain, the painkillers he took for his elbow masked the foot pain enough that he thought it was a sprain and walked on it for five weeks. An eventual X-ray revealed the seriousness of the injury.
Being in a walking boot for 10 weeks hindered Rhame’s elbow rehabilitation, so he couldn’t go to the Dominican Republic to play winter ball as he had hoped. When he shed the boot and started throwing again, he dealt with a left hamstring issue because his whole left leg had weakened as his foot recovered.
Despite all that, Rhame is “almost normal” at this point, he said. He is five bullpen sessions deep into spring training, only about a week behind where he would typically be.
Extra bases
Stroman on manager Luis Rojas: “I was only here two months, but everyone loved Rojas. It kind of seemed like everyone wanted him to be the manager when that spot was vacated.”…Rojas said he is fine with the new rule that dictates a pitcher must stay in the game for at least three batters (or until the end of the half-inning). “This rule applies very well to our bullpen,” he said …Dominic Smith is now No. 2 after giving up No. 22 to Rick Porcello. In exchange for the jersey number, Porcello gave Smith a donation to Baseball Generations, a Los Angeles player development academy that Smith helped start.
