NEW YORK -- As the trade rumours continue to flourish, with a spotlight sitting squarely on Marcus Stroman -- and wherever he may wind up -- the 28-year-old right-hander returned to the mound on Sunday to help fuel the fires of speculation.

After leaving his most recent start on June 29 after four innings with a left shoulder pectoral cramp that prevented Stroman from pitching in his first All-Star Game, the righty turned in six innings of three-run ball in an eventual 4-2 loss to the American League East Division leading Yankees at Yankee Stadium, allowing seven hits, two walks and fanning seven.

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“I thought I threw the ball really well,” Stroman said. “I haven’t thrown the ball in two weeks so I thought I was going to be a little wild, but I felt really good to be honest with you. Body felt good, arm felt really good, felt like I was in the zone for the most part and I thought I did a good job of navigating this lineup.

“This lineup, one through nine, is incredible. You can’t really give in at any point in the game, and I limited them to keeping the ball on the ground and not really putting many balls in the air.”

While Stroman’s starts have been must-watch material for Blue Jays fans all season long, as the club’s most consistent member of the rotation and the owner of a 3.25 ERA over 110 2/3 innings, all eyes across baseball have begun tuning in to see what the hurler will do ahead of the Trade Deadline and where it might take him. On Sunday, even his own team felt he took things up a notch.

“He looked really good,” Blue Jays manager Charlie Montoyo said. “And he kept us in the game like he always does. He was throwing actually 95, it’s the hardest he’s thrown this year. He’s been around 92, 93 but today he reached 95 so that was good to see. He’s healthy. He did a good job again.”

Added catcher Danny Jansen: “His arm was electric today.”

Stroman left a strong impression on his opponents in the Blue Jays’ loss.

“There’s a lot of things,” Yankees outfielder Aaron Judge said of Stroman. “He’s got good movement on his fastball. He can throw any pitch at any time. He has a good little cutter he’s starting to throw -- slider, curveball and he’ll throw any pitch at any time and he works both sides of the plate.

“When you’ve got a guy with that kind of movement and put it inside corner, outside corner it makes it tough and kind of keeps you off balance.”

The native of Long Island, N.Y. is one of the organization’s longest-tenured players and a homegrown product drafted out of Duke University in the first round in 2012. Stroman is also under club control for the remainder of this season and next -- not seeing free agency until 2021 -- and would require a significant return for Toronto.

“Marcus has put himself in an incredible position, throughout his career, not just over the last four months,” Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said ahead of the All-Star break. “He has been durable, he has performed at an exceptionally high rate, he’s been one of the better pitchers in baseball over the last three years and because of that, he’s in a great position for his future.”

Ahead of Sunday’s start, Toronto’s All-Star led all American League pitchers with a ground-ball percentage of 57.8 percent, ranked eighth in the circuit among ERA leaders, and he was the owner of 11 of the team’s 27 quality starts, adding to that number in the series finale against the Bronx Bombers.

“I truly believe that I always get stronger as the year goes on,” Stroman said. “I’ve always been a second-half pitcher. I think I’m going to have a pretty special second half. My body feels great, my arm feels great. … I’m going to get stronger as the year goes on.”

Because of his exceptional ability to induce ground balls, it was suggested to Stroman after Sunday’s game that he might be a good fit to don the pinstripes and take half his turns at Yankee Stadium, to which the hurler expressed confidence in his abilities no matter where he toes the rubber.

“I feel like I’m a good fit in this era,” Stroman said. “As far as launch angle and guys putting the ball in the air, my sinker plays incredibly well to keeping the ball on the ground and limiting homers. And I’m not just a sinker baller. I have a great cutter, my four-seam’s coming back, I have a great slider. I have plenty of weapons.”

While the thought continues to linger that every start in a Blue Jays uniform might be the last for the 5-foot-7, 180-pound righty, Stroman reiterated the idea that he is focused on the here and now.

“It’s hard to think about the future like that,” Stroman said. “I truly think if I start to think about it like that, it’s going to throw me off my game and it’s going to throw me out of the loop, mentally, physically, so I’m doing my best to really focus on the moment and [I’m] doing everything I can to be at my best to face Detroit on Friday.”

Added Montoyo: “All I know is that he’s healthy and he did a good job. Hopefully he’s pitching for us next time. We’re going to have a chance to win every time he takes the mound.”

Toronto couldn’t break out the bats in support of Stroman, despite homers from Randal Grichuk and Eric Sogard off Masahiro Tanaka in the fifth inning.