Yankees in agreement with Marcus Stroman on two-year, $37 million contract:

The Yankees are adding a starting pitcher, but not one of the top free-agent left-handers, Blake Snell or Jordan Montgomery.

Instead, sources briefed on the discussions indicate the team has reached an agreement with free-agent right-hander Marcus Stroman on a two-year deal worth $37 million with a vesting option. The deal is pending a physical.

Stroman, 32, is a Long Island native with a career 3.65 ERA in nearly 1,400 innings. He will join a rotation that includes the defending AL Cy Young winner, right-hander Gerrit Cole, two lefties coming off injury-marred seasons, Carlos Rodón and Nestor Cortes Jr., and righty Clarke Schmidt.

Last season with the Cubs, Stroman led the NL with a 2.28 ERA on June 20 and made the National League All-Star team. But he then faded, in part due to right hip inflammation that kept him out from Aug. 2 to Sept. 15. None of his final four appearances lasted more than three innings. It was the second straight season in which he finished with fewer than 140 innings.

Despite that worrisome trend, Stroman opted out of the final season of the three-year, $71 million deal he signed during the 2021-22 offseason, forfeiting a $21 million guarantee. The Athletic’s Tim Britton and Aaron Gleeman ranked him 11th on their top 40 Free Agent Big Board, and Britton projected him to receive a three-year, $63 million deal.

The Cubs could not make Stroman a qualifying offer because he had accepted one from the Mets in 2020 and a player under the collective bargaining agreement cannot receive such an offer twice. Thus, the Yankees will not lose a draft pick or sacrifice international bonus pool space once the deal is complete.

Stroman, who spent his first four-plus seasons with the Blue Jays, would give the Yankees the starter they have sought since losing the bidding for Japanese free-agent right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who signed a 12-year, $325 million contract with the Dodgers.

Snell, a former Ray, and Montgomery, a former Yankee, also had familiarity with the AL East. But Stroman, represented by his former GM with the Mets, Brodie Van Wagenen of Roc Nation, always projected to sign for less than the two lefties, both of whom employ Scott Boras as their agent.

The Yankees, after their ill-fated experience in their first season with Rodón, another Boras client, perhaps were concerned that Snell has spent his entire career in Tampa Bay and San Diego, two smaller markets. However, the same questions about pitching in the nation’s largest media market might apply to Stroman, who has shown an occasional inclination to speak out on social media.