This has been a challenging season Max Scherzerwhich is set to start eight. Back surgery and a thumb injury kept the three-time Cy Young winner from making his season debut until mid-June. He has been back on the injured list for the past two weeks due to shoulder fatigue. The World Series winners fell 11 games below .500 in the terrible month of August.
Surprisingly, it doesn’t seem like Scherzer is as comfortable this season as a duck song. The eight-time All-Star told reporters he expects to continue playing through 2025 (link comes from Evan Grant of the Dallas Morning News). “Where I was, I was able to compete,” Scherzer noted. “I can still throw at a high level. I look at things like my slider, which I went into the season wanting to improve, and it’s been really good. I still see myself being able to compete and win.“
Scherzer, who turned 40 in July, was the fourth-oldest player in the majors this season. A two-time partner Justin Verlander, Jesse Chavezagain Charlie Morton they have grown up. Scherzer, however, can still perform well when healthy. He turned in a 3.89 ERA with a solid 24.1% hitting percentage and a team-leading 5.1% walk rate through 39 1/3 innings. Those aren’t classic Scherzer numbers, but they’re still a mid-cycle product. That’s despite him throwing what appears to be absolute power. His speed has dropped significantly compared to last season, which may be due to the various injuries he has dealt with.
A troubled year will raise more concerns for a player of Scherzer’s age. However, this will be the first season (barring a shortened schedule) that he hasn’t reached 145 innings since his rookie year in 2008. While he battled injuries during last year’s postseason and was ultimately left out of the World Series, he still totaled 162 1/3 innings between the Mets and Rangers in the regular season and playoffs.
Texas is officially buried in the playoff race this year, but Scherzer came out of a bullpen session without an out today and looks to be on his way back from the injured list soon. He could make six or seven more starts to finish the season.
Scherzer appears determined to continue his Hall of Fame career for an 18th year. There is, however, uncertainty as to where he will be playing. He is in the final season of a three-year, $130MM free agent contract he signed with New York through 2021. He will be back on the open market during next season. Of course Scherzer won’t match the three-year term or reset the record $43.333MM annual value of his current contract, but he should still offer a solid one-year deal.
Players love it Jack Flaherty, Frankie Montas again Luis Severino all guarantees received between $13MM and $16MM as repeat candidates from last season. Scherzer is much older than those three but has had a very successful career and has the potential to turn in an ace-caliber year. A deal in the $15-20MM range for a high-paying club with legitimate World Series aspirations would work. That could be Texas, though they will need to make some moves in the rotation and strengthen the bottom half of the roster if they want to make a renewed push to compete.
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