ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.—Marcus Stroman is moving locker to locker in the visiting clubhouse trying to piece together a uniform.

The injured right-hander doesn’t want to look out of place when he joins his teammates in the dugout for Friday’s game, but the Blue Jays didn’t pack an extra kit for him, so he has to scrounge. Never one to shy away from badgering his teammates, it doesn’t take long for the outgoing 23-year-old to assemble a motley mix: a leftover pair of pants last worn by farmhand Rob Rasmussen, a hoodie from Ryan Goins and underwear from bosom buddy Aaron Sanchez.

Ragtag threads aside, Stroman is as effervescent as ever — boasting a colourful orange tuft atop his outgrown fro-hawk — and he looks right at home in the Jays’ clubhouse, despite the fact his torn left ACL is expected to keep him off a big-league mound until 2016.

That’s the official prognosis anyhow, but Stroman has other plans. His goal is to be back with the Jays in September, pitching out of the bullpen in a pennant race.

“Regardless of what people say, that’s going to be my mindset,” he said Friday, reiterating what he told Sportsnet.ca earlier this month. “I know my work ethic, so as long as everything goes as planned with the knee and it heals as it should, I don’t see why not.”

Stroman is most comfortable as an overachieving underdog, a mindset common to undersized professional athletes — he’s generously listed as five-foot-nine — forced to make a habit of proving disbelievers wrong. That’s how he has chosen to look at his presumed season-ending injury, suffered during a routine bunt-fielding drill in spring training. It was a devastating blow to both his and the Jays’ hopes, derailing what was expected to be a breakout season for the team’s ace-apparent.

But Stroman intends to make the most of his time off. After spending the weekend with his teammates, he’ll head home to Long Island to celebrate his 24th birthday with family before returning to Duke University, where he’ll pick up the sociology studies he left behind when he signed with the Jays in 2012. Stroman said he always intended on finishing his degree at some point; the silver lining of his injury is that he gets to it sooner rather than later.

He set his class schedule on Friday, juggling his daily rehab with lectures and assignments. By the end of the summer, if all goes as planned, he’ll have his degree — sociology major with a minor in marketing — and he wants to walk with the rest of his graduating class at convocation in December.

“I’ll have a big party if you guys want to come down,” he said, laughing.

But his biggest priority is returning to the Jays. At Duke his rehab will be monitored by Dr. Robert Butler, a biomechanics expert and professor at the school’s school of physical therapy.

“I’ll be grinding every morning and afternoon to get my knee right so that I’m back to hopefully pitch this year.”

He also admitted he’s been sneaking the odd throwing session and some light catch every other day, hoping to pick up right where he left off as soon as his knee permits.

“I probably shouldn’t be saying this,” he said, smiling coyly.

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