Marcus Stroman would love to be with the Cubs long-term originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
Marcus Stroman returned to his usual self in the Cubs 10-4 win over the Red Sox on Saturday. The right-hander tossed six innings of one-run ball, striking out three.
The Cubs All-Star has been the subject of trade rumors over the last couple of weeks and was asked about his future with the team following the game against Boston.
“Yeah, I would love to be here, long-term, you know,” Stroman said. “Everyone’s always putting this emphasis on ‘oh, we need to play well in seven days, 10 days and then we can be buyers.’ But I actually don’t believe in that. This division is wide open. And then if you look even deeper than that, as an organization why would you not want to be competitive for multiple years? Year after year after year.”
From the sound of things, Stroman would be open to staying with the Cubs but also wants to be on a team that is competitive.
On paper, the odds of the Cubs winning the division is slim given they are 6 1/2 games behind both the Brewers and Reds in the division. But, as Stroman said, it’s still wide open given neither the Brewers or Reds can be considered juggernauts.
Stroman hasn’t been shy about voicing his desire to remain in Chicago.
Replying to a tweet in early June, Stroman revealed he and his agent made “multiple attempts to engage them on an extension” but that the Cubs weren’t interested in exploring a deal at the moment.
MORE: Marcus Stroman tweets that the Cubs aren’t interested in exploring an extension now
This led to a conversation between Stroman and Cubs President Jed Hoyer where Hoyer preferred to keep the details of their conversation private but called Stroman’s remarks a “positive” during an interview with Mully & Haugh on 670 The Score.
As much as Stroman would like to stay, the veteran has been around long enough to know that baseball is ultimately a business.
At the end of the day it’s a business so we have to treat it as such,” Stroman said. “Even though we have this love for this fanbase and this organization. It’s hard to kind of separate it at times but, yeah, I love being a Cub, I love everything about it. But someone who’s been through it before, it’s something you kind of have to distance yourself a bit because a lot if it’s out of your control and no matter how much I love it, I can wake up tomorrow and be gone.”
With his performance against the Red Sox, Stroman lowered his ERA to 2.88, ninth-best in all of baseball. He also leads the Cubs in wins with 10 and in strikeouts with 101.
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