New Yankee Marcus Stroman has fit in seamlessly

HOUSTON — A text arrived from a rival American League executive shortly after news broke that Marcus Stroman had signed with the Yankees.

“That is,” the executive said, “a perfect spot for him.”

Stroman, who will make his Yankees debut on Saturday night against the Astros, hauled some baggage with him to the Bronx.

Much of that had to do with various spats with fans and/or media in which he  has found himself in over the years — some of his own doing, some not — on Twitter (now X).

But the executive’s pointwas well-taken (and certainly a view shared by the Yankees).

“He can just go out and pitch,” an opposing team bench coach said. “Already an established clubhouse there with Judge, Stanton, Rizzo, Cole, LeMahieu. Doesn’t have to be ‘The Guy.’ Just pitch. And he’s always done that well.”

The former  Patchogue-Medford High School star enters the season with a career 3.65 ERA in nine big-league seasons. He never has had the reputation of being anyone other than a pitcher who wants the ball in the biggest moments. He has made five postseason starts, including the deciding Game 5 of the Blue Jays-Rangers ALDS in 2015 (the Jose Bautista bat-flip game) and the 2016 AL wild-card game against the Orioles (won by Edwin Encarnacion’s walk-off homer in the 11th).

Regardless of some of the more controversial parts of his past, Stroman had, as Aaron Boone put it late in spring training, a “seamless” transition into the clubhouse.

His locker was located among the rest of the rotation in the home clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field, and it was far from unusual to see Stroman talking with fellow starting pitchers Gerrit Cole, Carlos Rodon, Nestor Cortes and Clarke Schmidt, as well as two relievers typically at their nearby lockers during media availability, Nick Ramirez and Luke Weaver, among others. Schmidt, whom Stroman has multiple times described as having “nasty” stuff, instantly connected with him.

“I think we have very similar mentalities, especially the way we prepare and the way we go about baseball,” Schmidt said. “We’re compete-first-type guys.”

On the surface, they are an unlikely pair: Stroman born and raised on bustling Long Island; Schmidt from Acworth, Georgia, a city of just over 22,000 located about two hours north of Atlanta.

But Stroman from afar had taken notice of Schmidt’s confidence on the mound, something that manifests itself with a strut employed by the latter after some strikeouts. It is the “Schmidt Strut” and has been a source of good-natured ribbing in the Yankees' clubhouse for years.

Before Friday night’s game, Schmidt, who will start Sunday’s series finale, laughed in saying he heard some teammates in spring training begin calling him “Stroman Jr.”

Schmidt was aware of Stroman’s reputation before meeting him.

“I’m really close with [Jameson] Taillon,” Schmidt said of the former Yankees pitcher, who was teammates with Stroman last season with the Cubs. “He said, ‘[Stroman's] got a rap for being a bad teammate and whatnot, and it’s not true. He really cares about winning.’ He cares about preparation and getting his body back and doing everything he can for baseball. Everything he does in his life kind of revolves around baseball, and I’m very similar to that.”

Speaking earlier in spring training of fitting in, Stroman said: “Outsiders don’t understand . . . [People] think, ‘Stroman’s this loud, outspoken guy,' but [Aaron] Judge has known me for a while. Everyone here’s extremely cool. We’ve got a great veteran presence, we’ve got great young guys, we have great personality. Everyone’s very different and everyone’s allowed to be themselves. Usually, the best teams are when you’ve got guys who are authentically themselves personality-wise . . . guys that love to compete and win.

"I’m excited. I’m excited for this roster and to go out there and play 162 with this team.”