I mean, at this point I don't even think anything malicious happened, but the entire Marcus Stroman rib injury situation is just weird. The story took another curve ball on Friday, when Stroman suddenly went up to the press box area at Wrigley Field in the middle of the Cubs game against the Kansas City Royals to talk to the media about his recent setback.
Stroman, who needed a cortisone shot to address inflammation in his right hip, was scheduled to return to the starting rotation this past Wednesday against the White Sox. Unfortunately, a right rib cage cartilage fracture was discovered on an MRI earlier in the week that surprised everyone, including Stroman himself.
The 32-year-old pitcher tossed a bullpen session on Sunday in Toronto, his final tune up before his penciled in start on Wednesday. He finished the throwing session, but Stroman said he felt pain and then on Tuesday we found out about the rib fracture.
OK, shit happens and it obviously sucks for Stroman and the Cubs, who could both greatly benefit from a solid end to the season on the mound from the right-hander.
On Friday, Stroman said he doesn't know how long he's going to miss.
And don't take this article as me questioning Stroman's toughness or anything like that. He got hurt, there's no doubt about it, but how does he not know what happened?
I mean, to have a rib injury, while you were already sidelined and trying to come back, but no one has a single clue as to how it happened seems pretty weird to me.
Via The Athletic.
The announcement of Stroman’s right rib cage cartilage fracture came as a surprise when it was announced on Wednesday and has generally been shrouded in mystery as to how it happened. Manager David Ross and team president Jed Hoyer had little explanation for how the rare injury occurred and Stroman did little to clear it up on Friday.
Stroman was questioned in multiple ways as to what could have possibly led to an injury that’s so rare in baseball. He said there was nothing that occurred in the weight room and he took grounders after his bullpen session like he often does in pregame and nothing odd happened during that either.
“Nothing glaring, nothing crazy,” Stroman said. “I’ve been taking ground balls my whole life, that’s nothing new. Once I cooled down I went right into the trainers, I told them it was from my diaphragm. It was behind my ribs and when I would exhale I would feel it. Nobody really had an answer at that time. And we’re all just trying to process it and figure it out right now.”
670 The Score radio host Dan Bernstein's antenna also went up on this Stroman situation, especially after listening back to Cubs president Jed Hoyer talk about the rib injury.
Via Audacy.
“He sounds unhappy that his injury happened,” Bernstein said of Hoyer. “’Unusual injury for a pitcher’ and then later he added ‘not your usual pitching injury.’ The other thing that stood out to me was ‘we don’t know if it’s muscular, skeletal’ … pause … ‘or whether it’s indigestion’ … laugh, a nervous laugh. He didn’t have to throw that in there. You stop at muscular or skeletal when you find out it’s neither muscular nor skeletal."
You can listen to the entire segment below.
At this point all that matters from a team perspective is whether or not Stroman will be able to pitch again this season. Yes, his last seven starts were brutal, but we've seen the past two years that when healthy, Stroman has been a consistently good starting pitcher.
On the other side, all this just feels...weird.
We'll find out who the Cubs give the first shot at replacing Stroman's spot in the rotation next week, when the Cubs take on the Detroit Tigers on the road and his turn comes up.
While it's unknown if Stroman will return before the end of the 2023 season, he may eventually opt-in to the final year of his contract that guarantees him $21 million in 2024.
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