But Stroman is on the verge of returning less than six months after surgery on his right knee, which absorbs his weight when he lands after every pitch. It is an admirable comeback made more so by what he did along the way. Stroman made good on his goal, completing his Duke education by taking five courses as he recovered in Durham, N.C.

“I’ve never wanted to be one-dimensional,” Stroman said. “If baseball’s not there for me, I want to be able to do well for myself. Obviously, having an education is extremely important in society as far as being able to go further. I never want to have to say that baseball is Marcus. I don’t want baseball to define me.”

Stroman had prepared for this. College players are eligible for the draft in their junior season, so he crammed three and a half years’ worth of courses into his first three years at Duke. Stroman reasoned that he would be much more likely to finish his degree if he were so close to completing it.

In his Florida hospital room, Stroman said, he imagined the drudgery of rehabilitation: up early for physical therapy — and then what? He wanted to stay busy, and even with an aggressive recovery schedule, he could still have time to finish his degree. He invited Bahnsen to join him at Duke, for friendship and support, and signed up for classes.

“He tells us all the time: That’s the hardest thing he’s ever done, between school and rehab,” said Marcus’s father, Earl Stroman, a police investigator in Suffolk County. “But he got it done, and I’m so proud of him. My only thing was school, and he did that. The kid works.”

In the first summer semester, Stroman said, he took a course on 17th-century slavery; a sociology course in which he wrote a 25-page paper on the portrayal of male and female athletes in media; and an elective on hip-hop cinema. In the second summer semester, he took Introduction to Acting and Creative Renewal in Markets and Management Studies. He hopes to walk with the other Duke graduates in ceremonies next May, if the Blue Jays allow it.