We’re just a few days into Spring Training and we’ve got a Marcus Stroman controversy on our hands. Toronto’s ace, who’s coming off the worst season of his career due largely to injury, has expressed disappointment with the Blue Jays’ front office for not offering him a long-term deal.

There’s, uh, a lot going on here. Ultimately, Stroman is frustrated with much more than the Jays haven’t offered him a long-term deal.

He says that he should be given a long term deal because nobody else embodies the city of Toronto as much as he does and that his performance should indicate how badly he wants to be here for the long run. But he also went on to criticize the Jays for not having many veteran players in the mix, suggesting that he needs to be the guy to help the young players along, like Mark Beuherle, Jose Bautista, and other did with him. Reading between the lines, Stroman appears to have a genuine frustration with the fact the front office isn’t arming the team with the pieces they need to compete in the American League.

And then this! Things get a little more wrinkly when Rob Longley reports that sources within the Blue Jays organization are disputing the fact that Stroman hasn’t been offered a long-term deal.

I’m not sure what to make of the long-term deal part. Stroman is saying he hasn’t been offered one, the Jays are saying that isn’t true. Who knows. I mean, I would be shocked if Stroman actually wanted to negotiate a long-term deal after the season he just had. He says Shapiro and Atkins should know by his performance that he wants to be here, but, uh, I don’t think anybody should garner that based on last year’s performance.

Stroman put up a 5.54 ERA over 19 starts, though, to be fair to him, he struggled with injury and the team’s defence didn’t do him many favours. He’s under control for two more years and then he can hit free agency. Given last year’s showing, Stroman would certainly be negotiating from a difficult place. So are these comments really about not getting a contract offer? Or is this all about something else?

I don’t blame Stroman for being vocal about the direction the organization is headed. I mean, he came up during the wonder days of 2015 and 2016 on a team loaded with incredible players and around an exciting fan atmosphere. Over his last two seasons, the life has been sucked out of the ballpark and, I imagine, the locker room as the Jays have put up back-to-back miserable seasons. Now he’s a veteran on a rebuilding club with no real ideal whether or not the front office wants him around long-term or not.

I think this quote is fairly damning:

Like I said, he’s got two more control years left, giving the Jays three windows to pull the trigger on a deal. The first would be mid-way through this season, the second would be in the off-season as a one-year rental, and the last would be at the 2020 deadline as a short-season rental. If gets off to a strong start to the season, I wouldn’t be shocked to see the Jays pull the trigger on a deal at that first deadline.