As the New York Yankees deal with injuries to their pitching, one question that still hasn't been solved is the recovery of star Marcus Stroman, who's been on the injured list with a left knee issue. While the Yankees are dealing with other injuries besides pitching, such as to Giancarlo Stanton, Stroman's situation is interesting, especially since his stint on the IL could help his value.

One would think that doesn't make sense in regards to why teams would value Stroman more since he's on the IL, but it deals more with his contract rather than his ability. Because he's been on the sidelines, he will fall short of the 140 innings needed so he could exercise his player option, according to Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

“Yankees starter Marcus Stroman’s trade value is actually increasing by being on the injured list,” Nightengale said. “Now that he’s sidelined, he won’t be able to automatically exercise his player option since he’ll fall short of 140 innings.”

“There were several teams who had interest in Stroman during the winter, but balked at the possibility of being on the hook for $18 million in 2026,” Nightengale continued.

Stroman has not thrown a pitch since April as he's only made three appearances this season, where he sports an 11.57 ERA to go along with seven strikeouts and a 0-1 record in 9.1 innings. However, Stroman was seen tossing with another injured pitcher in Luis Gil, before Friday's 6-2 win against the New York Mets, which could be seen as a good sign for the star who's eager to get back out on the mound.

It's been a frustrating recovery process for Yankees' Marcus Stroman

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As the Yankees pitcher had to receive a shot to treat the injury, there's np doubt that the process for the 34-year-old has been a frustrating one since he did experience a setback on May 9. According to Randy Miller of NJ.com, Stroman had “more discomfort with his knee” during live batting practice, which changed the thinking of the team of a quick recovery to it being longer.

New York manager Aaron Boone would provide as much information as possible in regards to the nagging knee issue that Stroman is dealing with.

“He’s got a lot of treatments on it and he just can’t get over that final hump to really allow him to get to that next level on the mound,” Boone said to the media via NJ.com. “We’ll try and continue to get our arms around it and make sure we get that (knee soreness) out of there.”

At any rate, the Yankees could use the two-time All-Star in Stroman to boost their pitching, but the team is at 26-19, which puts them first in the AL East. The team faces the Mets in the rubber match of the series on Sunday night.