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Marcus Stroman did not enjoy his arbitration hearing

MLB: APR 23 Blue Jays at Angels

ANAHEIM, CA - APRIL 23: Toronto Blue Jays starting pitcher Marcus Stroman (6) during the MLB regular season baseball game between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim on April 23, 2017 at Angel Stadium of Anaheim in Anaheim, Calif. (Photo by Ric Tapia/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman had his arbitration hearing. He lost. He requested $6.9 million and the Blue Jays countered with $6.5 million. Somewhat surprising given how good a 2017 season Stroman had, but arbitration can be like that sometimes. As I recently noted, arbitration is a somewhat complicated process with some often counterintuitive forces at work and thus you can’t just go with “good player should win, bad player should lose” and expect to predict the outcomes with much accuracy.

As I also noted in that post, one weird part of arbitration is that a player has to sit there in the hearing room and listen to his own club talk smack about him. Maybe it’s not blatantly insulting, but the club’s lawyers do cite the problems with a player, his failures and his flaws and argue that, as a result, he should not get the money he’s asking for.

Based on the outcome, the Blue Jays’ lawyers did an effective job of that, but it didn’t leave a great taste in Stroman’s mouth:

Whatever motivates you, Marcus.

Follow @craigcalcaterra