LOS ANGELES — Marcus Stroman finally broke out of his holding pattern and faced hitters Saturday at Dodger Stadium for the first time in three weeks.
What comes next is much less clear.
The Yankees’ veteran right-hander, who has been on the injured list since April 12 with left knee inflammation, had last thrown live batting practice May 9 in Tampa.
But he experienced discomfort in that session, so he had only been throwing bullpen sessions every few days since then until Saturday, when he threw around 30 pitches and the equivalent of two innings.
“Stro looked sharp,” manager Aaron Boone said. “Liked what I saw from him. … I thought his stuff looked good.”
How Stroman’s knee responds to the increase in activity will determine how he proceeds, with Boone saying he did not yet know what was next.
But even once he proves he is ready and goes on a rehab assignment, his role with the Yankees remains up in the air.
Boone has previously said the Yankees will build up Stroman — who said in spring training he would not pitch out of the bullpen — as a starter, though they have five starters pitching well in Max Fried, Carlos Rodón, Clarke Schmidt, Will Warren and Ryan Yarbrough.
Yarbrough began the season in the bullpen but has been sharp in four starts since moving into the rotation when Carlos Carrasco was designated for assignment.
Stroman last pitched in a game April 11, when he gave up five runs in ²/₃ of an inning against the Giants, with his knee issues being revealed later that night.
He had advanced to facing hitters May 9 in Tampa, when the knee flared up again.
“It seemed like it was minor, but it was lingering,” Boone said. “Then through a couple different bullpens he had, it was still there and lingering. So we’ll see.”
Stroman’s extended stay on the injured list has almost certainly ensured he will not make it to 140 innings, which was the mark he had to hit to trigger an $18 million vesting option for 2026.
Whether that makes him a more tradable commodity once he is healthy remains to be seen.
Then again, the Yankees are only one injury away from needing Stroman to fill a spot in the rotation, with limited starting depth in the minors.
Luis Gil is on the way back, getting on the mound Friday for the first time since being shut down with a high-grade lat strain in spring training, but he still has a ways to go, with a return likely to come post-All-Star break, at best.
In Stroman’s absence — along with Gil and Gerrit Cole’s season-ending Tommy John surgery — the Yankees rotation has been thriving of late.
It entered this series having posted an MLB-best 2.54 ERA over its last 40 games since April 14, having allowed three earned runs or fewer in 35 of those starts, two earned runs or fewer in 31 of those starts and one or zero earned runs in 22 of those starts.
Fried had an aberration Friday night, when his ERA rose from 1.29 to 1.92 after giving up six runs in five-plus innings against the Dodgers.
But before then, he had been one of the best pitchers in the game through the first third of the season.
Rodón has also stepped up his game while Warren and Yarbrough had pitched well to solidify the back end of the rotation in recent weeks.
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