NEW YORK (AP) — Marcus Stroman feels ready to return to the mound for the New York Yankees, able to manage pain in his left knee stemming from a torn ACL a decade ago.
“It’s something that I try not to put in my head because if you’re just thinking about that 24/7, you’re not in a good place," the 34-year-old right-hander said Saturday, a day before he faces the Athletics.
Stroman has not pitched for the Yankees since allowing five runs in two-thirds of an inning against San Francisco on April 11. In three rehab appearances with Double-A Somerset that began June 11, Stroman was 0-1 with a 6.97 ERA.
He allowed five runs, 10 hits and two walks over 3 2/3 innings on Wednesday against Detroit's Erie Seawolves.
"I’m someone who definitely needs kind of the intensity to turn it on, so looking forward to kind of getting back out there," Stroman said.
Stroman tore his ACL during a spring training fielding drill with Toronto on March 10, 2015, had surgery nine days later and returned to a big league mound that Sept. 19 when he beat the Yankees in a five-inning outing in the Bronx.
He credited Nikki Huffman, his personal trainer and Toronto's head athletic trainer from 2018-19, with helping him manage the pain.
“It’s my ACL knee that I tore 10 years ago, so just figuring out how to deal with the soreness, the aching and then mechanically figuring out how to get away from kind of overdoing it into my knee." Stroman said. "When I’m more efficient mechanically, my knee’s taking less stress.”
Stroman started the season 0-1 with an 11.57 ERA in three starts. He rejoins a rotation missing ace Gerrit Cole (Tommy John surgery), AL Rookie of the Year Luis Gil (strained right lat) and left-hander Ryan Yarbrough (strained right oblique).
“He’s got to command it. That’s the biggest thing, is being where he wants on the plate and having a presence on both sides of the plate — can’t just live one side,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. “What is kind of the shapes of his pitches? Are is he crisp?”
Stroman was 10-9 with a 4.31 ERA in 29 starts and one relief appearance over 154 2/3 innings last season, his most since 2021 with the Mets. Stroman struggled in the second half and did not pitch in the postseason, when the Yankees made their first World Series appearance since 2009.
Boone discounted the last minor league outing.
“It was a smoking hot day in Somerset for a veteran guy that’s pitching in Somerset for his third one,” Boone said.
In his first game following his promotion, Spencer Jones homered in his first at-bat for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
A 6-foot-7, 24-year outfielder, Jones hit a solo homer in the first inning Friday night off Worcester's Tyler Uberstine, driving a full-count, low-and-insider sinker 397 feet to center. The drive was 109.9 mph off his bat.
Jones was 1 for 5 with two strikeouts in the RailRiders' 4-2 win. He hit .270 with 16 homers, 32 RBIs, 10 stolen bases and a .984 OPS for Double-A Somerset, striking out 70 times in 175 at-bats.
“Obviously, the ceiling is real, just the speed and power and athleticism is real,” Boone said. "It’s just about plugging some holes, continue to tighten up as a big guy, which could be challenging, but if you master it, it can be pretty awesome. So, he’s moving the needle."
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FILE - New York Yankees starting pitcher Marcus Stroman throws to a Kansas City Royals batter during the fifth inning of a baseball game, June 11, 2024, in Kansas City, Mo. (AP Photo/Reed Hoffmann, File)
CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — In the aftermath of a fire inside a Swiss Alpine bar that killed 40 people celebrating the new year, survivors, friends and family members, the region’s top authorities and even Pope Leo have spoken to the public in remarks in French, Italian, German and English, reflecting the tradition of Swiss multilingualism.
Another 119 people were injured in the blaze early Thursday as it ripped through the busy Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest tragedies in Switzerland’s history.
Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.
Here’s a look at what people said in the wake of the disaster:
— “I’m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere,” Laetitia Brodard told reporters Friday in Crans-Montana as she searched for her son, 16-year-old Arthur. “I want to know, where is my child, and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”
— “We were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could. We saw people screaming, running,” Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, told The Associated Press in Crans-Montana on Friday, recounting how he rushed to the bar to help the injured. “There was one of our friends: She was struggling to get out, she was all burned. You can’t imagine the pain I saw.”
— “It was hard to live through for everyone. Also probably because everyone was asking themselves, ‘Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?’” Eric Bonvin, general director of the regional hospital in Sion that took in dozens of injured people, told AP on Friday. “This place was very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,” Bonvin said. “Also, seeing young people arrive — that’s always traumatic.”
— “I have seen horror, and I don’t know what else would be worse than this,” Gianni Campolo, a Swiss 19-year-old who was in Crans-Montana on vacation and rushed to the bar to help first responders, told France's TF1 television.
—“You will understand that the priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning,” Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais region's attorney general, told reporters Friday during a news conference in Sion.
Pope Leo said in a telegram Friday to the bishop of Sion that he " wishes to express his compassion and concern to the relatives of the victims. He prays that the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and will sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies.”
— “We have numerous accounts of heroic actions, one could say of very strong solidarity in the moment,” Cantonal head of government Mathias Reynard told RTS radio Friday. "In the first minutes it was citizens — and in large part young people — who saved lives with their courage.”
— “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help," Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the position that changes hands annually, told reporters Thursday.
People bring flowers near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
A woman holding a stuffed animal, whose daughter is missing, gather with others near the sealed-off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)
People light candles near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)
