Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Max Scherzer delivers a pitch against the Boston Red Sox in a September game at Rogers Centre.Dan Hamilton/Reuters
When the Toronto Blue Jays signed three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer to a one-year, US$15-million contract in February, Thursday’s upcoming game was the kind of opportunity they envisioned.
Scherzer will start Game 4 of the American League Championship Series in Seattle against the Mariners, his first postseason appearance in a Jays uniform.
The Jays left the 41-year-old, two-time World Series champion off the roster for the best-of-five AL Division Series against the Yankees. So he used the time to get healthy and tune up his stuff. Now in a best-of-seven series, they want more starters in the rotation, and they are leaning on Scherzer’s postseason experience.
“I love it. This is what you play for. You want to have the ball in this situation, you want to be pitching in the postseason,” said Scherzer on Wednesday.
“You got to bring it, you got to have your ‘A’ game, you got to really be on top of your stuff. So they’re going to be as prepared as heck to go against me and try to beat me, and I got to do the same and find a way to navigate it.”
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He didn’t finish the regular season strong, but now the Jays are trusting in the decorated pitcher who is likely headed for the Hall of Fame.
“You trust that he’s going to be prepared and go out and give everything he has and hopefully rise to the occasion of a big moment. He’s a Hall of Famer for a reason,” said Toronto manager John Schneider. “So you feel good about handing him the ball and watching him go to work.”
The eight-time MLB all-star has made 30 postseason appearances (25 starts) totalling 143 innings. Scherzer earned champion rings with the Washington Nationals in 2019 and the Texas Rangers in 2023.
Scherzer’s stuff was great earlier this season, but over his final six starts (25 IP), he posted a 9.00 ERA.
Scherzer throws during the first inning of a game against the Kansas City Royals in September, in Kansas City, Mo. The eight-time MLB all-star has made 30 postseason appearances.Charlie Riedel/The Associated Press
It’s tough to forget his recent start in Kansas City, when he lasted just two thirds of an inning and allowed seven runs in the shortest noninjury start of his career. Or last month in the Bronx, when the Yankees exploited Scherzer tipping his changeup.
So it was tough to be left off the ALDS roster, but he used the time wisely, getting better physically, staying in the dugout during games and engaged with the team, pitching a simulated game.
“I’m not going to point the finger at anything ailment-wise of why I was pitching bad. I was pitching bad,” said Scherzer. “But I have used this time to try to get fully healthy, get everything right … to go out there and pitch as well as I can.”
He and fellow pitcher Chris Bassitt were both off that ALDS roster, but on this one for the ALCS. They got through it together.
“Me and Max definitely weren’t happy about not playing against New York, but at the end of the day it was looking at this series here, knowing that we needed this,” said Bassitt.
“It was just trusting the guys that we have in the room to get us to this series and then, getting Max healthy, and I think Max is in a really, really good spot for that.”