Another Cy Young in hand, Scherzer pushing harder than ever

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Max Scherzer climbed upon the first mound at the near end of the 12-pack bullpen outside The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches and began the mundane task of throwing pitches to catcher Miguel Montero.

It's the same task every pitcher in every camp around baseball participates in every spring. Nothing to see here, right?

Except here was Scherzer, on the day before Nationals pitchers and catchers even hold their first official workout of the spring, grunting and cursing after throwing pitches. And here was the three-time Cy Young Award winner continuing his bullpen session long after Brandon Kintzler, Wander Suero and Brady Dragmire had completed theirs.

For a good 10 minutes after his bullpen mates had wrapped up, Scherzer kept throwing. A crowd began forming around the 12-pack, with the pitchers in the next throwing group (including Gio Gonzalez) watching and admiring the staff ace setting the tone in mid-February.

When he was finally done, Scherzer had thrown a whopping 60 pitches. And tried to convince everyone this was no big deal.

"That's normal," he said. "Throwing 60-pitch 'pens, that should be easy. And it is easy. That was in my normal routine for how I get ready for the season. Sometimes right now, this is the toughest throwing you experience the year as you continue to ramp up through the first bullpens, the first live BPs, the first games. There's a lot of throwing here. So for me, I always like to get on the mound, feel some fatigue and kind of work through it. I see benefits on that by the end of spring training."

This was not, it needs to be pointed out, Scherzer's first time throwing off a mound in 2018. He already had thrown four previous bullpen sessions since arriving early in Florida.

And the image of the ace working harder and longer than anyone else might have been magnified by the fact his three teammates on the mound were all relievers who don't need to build their arms up to the same extent.

"I felt like I was out there forever by myself because you had relievers right next to me, and they only need to throw 20 pitches because they're throwing one inning," he said. "They don't have to ramp up. If you had (Stephen Strasburg), Gio, Tanner (Roark), we'd be having long bullpens and I probably wouldn't have been there by myself throwing a 60-pitch bullpen."

OK, fair enough. Scherzer's throwing session still was noteworthy, though, because of the intensity he brought to the proceedings. On the heels of his second straight Cy Young season, he has insisted he's still trying to find ways to get better.

It certainly helps that Scherzer was able to enjoy a healthy offseason and won't be held back at all this spring after a frustrating 2016-17 offseason in which he was dealing with a stress fracture on his right ring finger. Forced to alter his grip to a three-fingered fastball last spring, Scherzer didn't even make his Grapefruit League debut until March 22.

This spring already is off to a much better start.

"Honestly, the best part is I don't have to go in the training room and get treatment to my finger every single day," he said. "I can just go in, get breakfast and not have to worry. I can just worry about what I have to do for the day. I don't have to worry about any treatment. That's honestly the easiest part of this now."

There was one very important difference this winter for Scherzer: the birth of his daughter, Brooklyn, in late November. That did add a wrinkle or two to his typical offseason routine.

"The sleep schedule's a little different," he said. "There's not as many party nights, I'll say that."

Now 33 with nine full big league seasons under his belt, Scherzer is learning how to adapt in an attempt to maintain his elite form. He said he hasn't needed to make any major conditioning adjustments yet. If nothing else, a continuation of the work ethic and drive he's had all along should help him thrive as he transitions into the latter half of his career.

"I'm still pushing as hard as ever," he said. "There's no reason to stop. There might be some things I do a touch differently, but from an output standpoint I'm still putting out and trying to get as much effort into the offseason workout."