Nationals agree to terms on seven-year contract with right-hander Max Scherzer

The Washington Nationals agreed to terms with 2013 American League Cy Young Award winner right-handed pitcher Max Scherzer on a seven-year contract on Wednesday. President of Baseball Operations and General Manager Mike Rizzo made the announcement. Scherzer, 30, joins the Nationals after seven Major League seasons with the Detroit Tigers (2010-14) and Arizona Diamondbacks (2008-09), and on the heels of back-to-back All-Star campaigns. Scherzer is 91-50 with a 3.58 ERA in 207 career games (198 starts) during his seven year career. Since 2012, he has posted at least 10.0 strikeouts/9.0 innings pitched and has eclipsed the 200.0 inning barrier for two straight seasons (2013-14). Since 2009, his first full Major League campaign, Scherzer has made at least 30 starts each season while posting double-digit wins in five straight years (2010-14). "We are delighted to welcome Max Scherzer to our organization," said Theodore N. Lerner, Managing Principal Owner of the Washington Nationals. "An incredibly talented and widely-feared pitcher, Max brings even more depth to an already outstanding rotation. We are confident he will make significant contributions to our pursuit of winning a World Series championship." "We could not be happier to add a player of Max's caliber to our stable of starting pitchers," said Rizzo. "It's not every day that a team adds a Cy Young Award winner to its roster. He is a playoff-tested ace, and we're excited to call him a part of our family." While helping to lead the Tigers to four consecutive AL Central titles, Scherzer earned the 2013 AL Cy Young award after leading the American League in wins (21), while ranking second in strikeouts (240), strikeouts per nine innings (10.8), quality starts (25), batting average against (.198), and fifth in ERA (2.90) and innings pitched (214.1). Scherzer followed that up by going 18-5 with a 3.15 ERA in 2014, while posting a career-high 220.1 IP, striking out 252 batters (10.3 batters per nine innings), and finishing fifth in the Cy Young voting. During his five seasons in the American League, Scherzer has averaged 203 innings pitched per season, to go along with 216 strikeouts (1,081 total) and a 3.52 ERA. The right-hander joins a rotation that includes three pitchers who finished in the top-10 in 2014 National League Cy Young voting: Jordan Zimmermann, Doug Fister and Stephen Strasburg, along with 15-game winner Tanner Roark, who posted the 12th-best ERA in the NL (2.85), and two-time All-Star Gio Gonzalez. Before the acquisition of Scherzer, ESPN.com had already ranked the Nationals rotation as the best in the Major Leagues entering 2015. Originally drafted by Rizzo, who was then the Diamondbacks' Vice President of Scouting Operations, Scherzer was selected by Arizona in the first round (No. 11 overall) of the 2006 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of Missouri. Scherzer made his Major League debut on April 29, 2008, and since that time he has compiled the eighth-most strikeouts (1321) of any starting pitcher in the Major Leagues - putting him on a short list of strikeout masters with the likes of Felix Hernandez, Justin Verlander and Clayton Kershaw.