There will be no Max Scherzer reunion in D.C. this season, an idea that sounded good in theory but probably never had much serious chance of coming to fruition.
Scherzer, after waiting out a prolonged Hot Stove League in search of a job, finally found a new home Thursday, reportedly agreeing to a one-year, $15.5 million deal with the Blue Jays. It’s the right-hander’s lowest annual salary since 2013, when he was a 28-year-old in Detroit still trying to prove himself one of the game’s best pitchers.
The market for Scherzer wasn’t nearly as robust as he and agent Scott Boras probably hoped, but they had several factors working against them. Scherzer turns 41 in July. And he’s coming off an injury plagued season with the Rangers that saw him make only nine starts while compiling an un-Scherzer-like 3.95 ERA.
If the hope was to create a bidding war among multiple contending clubs interested in a three-time Cy Young Award winner’s production and leadership, it never fully materialized. Scherzer remained unsigned deep into January and earlier this week needed to hold a personal showcase in front of scouts from several teams to drum up interest and prove he’s healthy again.
The Blue Jays, who spent much of the winter missing out on a number of top-tier free agents to big-market clubs, finally came through and inked Scherzer to a deal that’s relatively modest by his standards.
It’s been almost exactly 10 years since the Nationals gave the right-hander a then-record, seven-year, $210 million contract, forever changing both his career and the franchise’s trajectory. Scherzer would win dominate in his first season in D.C., tossing two no-hitters. He followed that up with a Cy Young performance the next season, one that included a 20-strikeout start. And then he came right back and won the award again one year later. For good measure, he struck out 300 batters in 2018, then helped lead the Nats to their first World Series title in 2019.
With the franchise failing to sustain that kind of team success in the wake of the championship run, Scherzer was traded to the Dodgers in July 2021. His career has been a nomadic journey since, with stops in Los Angeles, New York, Texas and now Toronto. The Mets gave him a three-year, $130 million deal in 2022, then traded him (and a huge portion of his salary) to the Rangers halfway through that contract.
He managed to win another World Series in Texas in 2023, though he was already battling nagging injuries at that point and wasn’t a major October contributor. He made only nine starts last season, with three trips to the injured list for three separate ailments (back surgery, shoulder fatigue, hamstring strain).
There was always speculation Scherzer might look to return to Washington at some point, hoping to finish his Hall of Fame career with a final victory lap in the town that made him worthy of Cooperstown. But with his desire to continue to pitch for a contender, Scherzer likely prioritized other organizations over the Nationals, who are coming off back-to-back, 71-win seasons and have made only modest additions to the roster this winter.
It's still possible he makes it back to D.C. before retiring, of course, though that would require a return to health on his part and a return to contention on the Nats’ part.
Whether that ever happens remains to be seen, but in some ways Scherzer’s recent movement from team to team may be helping to solidify his connection with the Nationals.
Had he thrived in New York for three full seasons, competing for another Cy Young Award and/or carrying the Mets to the World Series, there might have been a case to think of Scherzer as much in royal blue and orange in Queens as red, white and blue in Washington. And though he did win another ring in Texas, he wound up making only 17 starts for the Rangers, making that a short blip on his career path.
When the day finally comes for the Hall of Fame to select a logo to put on Scherzer’s plaque in Cooperstown, it feels almost a given it will be a curly W. That plaque will include the cities of at least seven teams he pitched for (Arizona, Detroit, Washington, Los Angeles, New York, Texas, Toronto) but his career clearly will have been defined by his 6 1/2 seasons with the Nationals more than any others.