Marcus Stroman releases earnest apology after outburst directed at Gleyber Torres

Yankees starter Marcus Stroman lost his cool in the bottom of the fifth inning Friday, as Gleyber Torres and Anthony Volpe weren't able to complete a double play on a Vladimir Guerrero Jr. grounder up the middle that allowed a second Blue Jays run to score. Stroman was visibly upset, screaming, "Throw the f***ing ball!"

At the time, it felt like an overreaction; the play didn't represent an especially egregious failure on anyone's part. By the time the frame ended, it appeared Stroman had already realized that, too.

His tirade would continue in the dugout until captain Aaron Judge explained that wasn’t the Yankee way. And by the end of an eventual 16-5 Yankees win that helped them keep pace with the Baltimore Orioles atop the AL East, all was copacetic. Torres homered, and manager Aaron Boone said the following about Stroman’s impact as a teammate: “We love him, and I know he loves being a part of this team and part of this."

Which is why you have to like seeing Stroman taking to social media to apologize to Torres and his teammates for his outburst after the game. He obviously took Judge’s words to heart, and realizes he has to be better, both on the field — where he’d just given up three runs on five hits and three walks in only 4 1/3 innings of work -- and also for his teammates, who look to him for veteran leadership.

Yankees' Marcus Stroman: I'm very passionate. I care a lot about winning.

Stroman is in his 10th major league season and just turned 33 years old on May 1. This isn’t his first rodeo, and the Yankees offer him the best chance to win in 2024. The two-time All-Star has never been to a World Series. The closest he ever got was the back-to-back ALCS teams he started for in Toronto in 2015 and 2016, but he hasn’t been back to the postseason since.

So if it truly is his goal to win, and that passion and raw emotion is really all about winning, let’s hope he can channel that energy into his performance on the field. After going 3-1 with a 1.67 ERA in six starts and 37 2/3 innings in May, the wheels have fallen off this month, with a 5.13 ERA in five starts and only 26 1/3 innings pitched in June, marked by a concerning drop in velocity. For the season, he’s 7-3 with a 3.29 ERA over 95 2/3 innings in 17 starts.

And he should be thanking his infielders and praising them, like he did in the post below after Friday’s win. Stroman continues to generate a ton of ground balls, with 50.7% of batted balls against him hit on the ground (which puts him in the 83rd percentile on ground ball percentage), With a FIP of 4.85 this year, it's been the defense behind him that has kept him in a lot of his starts.

Stroman could play a key role in bringing a World Series championship back to New York for the first time in fifteen years. He says he lost his cool, and that he needs to be better, ducking nothing in the play's aftermath and admitting that exactly what fans theorized is what occurred. He wanted a double play turned. He didn't get one. He lost it.

Apologies are one thing, but actions and performance are another, so let’s hope he can keep being the starter the Yankees need down the stretch.