Blue Jays sign Max Scherzer

Don’t it make your brown eyes blue

Whatever year it becomes that Max Scherzer finally reaches his eligibility for the Hall-of-Fame and is inducted at Cooperstown, few will be the fans that remember his one year with the Blue Jays. On Thursday, Jon Heyman reported, and confirmed by other national reporters, that Scherzer, a 40-year-old righthander, emerging from an injury-plagued 2024 at Texas, having already earned a cool $337-million over the previous 11 seasons, has agreed to terms of a one-year, $15.5M contract, joining a talented, veteran Jays rotation for the 2025 season. Money was no object. Competition was.

Scherzer in the course of an impressive 17-year career in the majors, with the Diamondbacks, Tigers, Nationals, Dodgers, Mets and Rangers, has compiled a 216-112 record with a 3.16 ERA, striking out 3407 batters in 2878 innings. Those are likely first-ballot credentials for Cooperstown.

The caveat is that most of those numbers were racked up a long, long time ago. Now, after making just nine starts with the Rangers in ‘24, Scherzer joins the 74-win Blue Jays as the fourth starter, behind Kevin Gausman, Jose Berrios and Chris Bassitt and ahead of Bowden Francis. Cuban sophomore Yariel Rodriguez is relegated to the status of “swing-man.”

Mad Max, at the behest of his mega-agent Scott Boras, staged an open workout for scouts in January that was attended by more than a dozen teams, including the Jays. At the time, it was believed Toronto was simply doing its due diligence, but it turns out they had more on their mind. The Jays now feature a Top 4 rotation that will earn a combined $77.5M. That’s four of the Top 7 salaries on the ’25 team, which is very unusual among the 30 franchises.

Way back, before Scherzer became famous for his superior pitching, he was mostly famous for having one brown and one blue eye. Then talent took the spotlight and he found himself well on his way to Cooperstown. That streak carried him up until 2019, when he began to struggle, beset by injuries and interrupted by the pandemic. Over the past six seasons (2019-24), Max is 57-30, with a 2.99 ERA, in 128 starts, averaging under 22 starts per year. Good numbers, but certainly not Hall worthy.

What happened? His four-seam fastball used to top out at 96-98 mph, but now sits at a pedestrian 92.5, a number consistent at both the ’24 season and his private workout. The other pitches in his repertoire have followed. The positive is that there will be more balls in play behind Scherzer with the Jays, but with the addition of Andres Gimenez and his Gold Glove at second base and with the superior defence around the outfield, his stuff and his savvy should still play. But he needs good health.

What was the Jays signing strategy

It may not work, but the Jays are demonstrating that this is not the start of a rebuild, instead that they want to contend in 2025. That is the only way that a disgruntled fan base will buy in advance. We’ll see how that works out.

The Jays have, all along, stated their desire to add one more starter to an already solid rotation, ever since GM Ross Atkins hosted his year-end media wrap-up in early November. They then lost out on Corbin Burnes, Roki Sasaki and others that we don’t even know about, which then lowered the front office expectations from chasing a near-ace to settling for a back-end of the rotation guy. Scherzer, of course, used to be the former and is now clearly the latter. But, still, he knows how to pitch.

Sure, there were other less-expensive fourth-starter candidates out there, veteran arms still available and becoming less expensive, week to week. There was RH Cal Quantrill, LH Andrew Heaney, LH Jose Quintana, RH Kyle Gibson and RH Spencer Turnbull. Any of those could have given you 28-30 starts and kept you in most ballgames, logging close to 150 innings.

And, besides, all those would have come in at likely under $10M, but the addition of Scherzer at $15.5M boosts the Jays potential opening day payroll some $16M above last year’s record total of $225M, dangerously over the luxury-tax penalty threshold.

That will leave the Jays brass with choices to make at the trade deadline in July. If they are above .500 and contending for a wild-card spot, they can say, “damn the luxury tax and full speed ahead”, but if they are languishing with little hope of making a run down the stretch, they can throw expensive veterans overboard and try to sneak back under the threshold like they did in 2024.

Another obvious factor in making a decision to sign Scherzer for 28 starts, rather than any of the less celebrated options is that for the casual fanbase, which is the majority that fills the stadium, it is a much-needed group that has been turned off by the many swings and misses by the Jays in their pursuit of free agents. Ticket sales have wallowed in apathy. But Scherzer’s is a name they recognize and with the earlier signing of Anthony Santander, a pre-spring training buzz becomes palpable.

Now, if only they would make a serious effort to sign Vlad Guerrero Jr. to a 14-year extension for the third highest total value in MLB history, fans would finally start to believe them, that this is not a rebuild. He’s not the third best MLB player, but it’s all about timing and if you are going to play with the Big Boys, the Jays have to act like it.