Stroman would ‘love' to help Cubs recruit free agents

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If the Cubs are serious about getting aggressive this winter in adding impact players and trying to turn a competitive corner, they have a willing and able ally in the clubhouse.

Starter Marcus Stroman — the pitching jewel of the Cubs’ last free agent winter — said he’ll gladly do his part to land free agents if the front office wants to utilize his services.

“I’ll reach out and recruit,” he said. “I’ll do as much as I can.

“But a lot of it’s out of my control,” he added. “We’re out of a lot of it. We’re not in a lot of those discussions or negotiations. We’re finding out just like y’all a lot of the time, on Twitter."

If chairman Tom Ricketts and team president Jed Hoyer mean what they say, this is a big winter for acquisitions and progress in this latest rebuild, which could make it especially valuable to have added, credible voices to help sell their vision to free agent targets.

“I would love to be involved in that process," Stroman said.

The Cubs are in the second losing season of a second strip-down, tank/rebuild in a decade.

Cubs catcher Willson Contreras on Tuesday reiterated his earlier assessment that the Cubs aren’t particularly close to winning, while Stroman reiterated his earlier assessment that the Cubs are “a few pieces away from really being truly competitive in the league.”

Regardless of which veteran player is closer to being correct, the Cubs certainly need to pull off a significant winter to augment the few holdover pieces that look like legitimate impact players for a contending team — never mind to compete with the likes of the Dodgers and Mets.


For his part, Stroman beat the Phillies 2-1 with another seven strong innings Tuesday — lowering his ERA to 2.74 in 15 starts since returning from the injured list July 9.

“You never want to look too far into the future,” said Stroman on his upbeat look at the Cubs’ promising young pitchers in the mix next year, including Justin Steele and Hayden Wesneski. “So many things are out of our control. I can go into it saying I see this, this and this, and it could be a complete new staff next year.

“I love what we have. I love the young group of guys.”

And if the Cubs want to employ his efforts to add, say, a Carlos Rodon, a Nathan Eovaldi, a Trea Turner or a Xander Bogaerts in free agency, Stroman’s all in.

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