Marcus Stroman has been playing baseball since he was a kid. He starred at Patchogue-Medford High School, then Duke University. He got drafted by the Blue Jays in 2012 and was traded to the Mets in 2019. This will be his ninth season as a pro _ seventh in the majors _ and, finally, after all that, at the end of the year he will be a free agent, for the first time able to choose where he wants to work and let the open market determine his value.
Just as the market is tanking.
Because of the financial havoc wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, nobody expects major-league teams to spend as much this winter as they have in recent winters, when spending was already down enough and slow enough that it bothered players. The timing for Stroman and other marquee free agents _ such as Mookie Betts and J.T. Realmuto, who both play positions where the Mets are needy _ could not be worse.
