You know Mad Max Scherzer didn’t come to Toronto on a sightseeing tour to play out his age 40-41 season if you’ve watched him on the pitch for any amount of his certain Hall of Fame career.
To see what the newest Blue Jay starter contributes to a team, a clubhouse, and a fan base, you don’t need to look too closely at his resume.
Scherzer, a three-time Cy Young Award winner and an eight-time All-Star, is without a doubt among the best big league pitchers of the last ten or more years. His baseball card’s back shows that, and a lengthy record of defeated batters attests to it.
But it is the competitor in the accomplished veteran that should most excite his latest set of teammates, front office and win-starved fan base.
“The accolades, we could talk about for a long time,” Blue Jays general manager Ross Atkins said on a Friday afternoon video call welcoming Scherzer to the team. “There aren’t many people in the game that have more than Max does. (But) it’s not about those accomplishments. When someone has an elite level of competitiveness, that raises the bar for others.
“It’s something in professional sports that’s hard to quantify, but you can feel it. He’s going to raise the bar for all of us here.”
Scherzer agrees to that as well. He has actually made it his career to bring that attitude and hard ethic to wherever clubhouse he ends up landing.
He admitted on Friday that being in the east to be near his family in Florida was a top priority for what may be his last free-agent contract, the one-year, $15.5-million agreement he signed with the Jays.
The famous Scherzer fire still burns brightly, despite the fact that he suffers from the aches and pains of aging and the back issues that kept him out of action for a large portion of the previous season.
“I still feel I can pitch at a high level, compete at a high level and be a part of a championship-calibre team,” Scherzer said with the steely stare that has intimidated batters. “I love to win. Winning cures everything. All you need to do is wake up in the morning and have that drive to win and the rest kind of takes care of itself.
“I love being able to go out there and pitch. That’s what makes it fun.”
This will be MLB organization number seven — and possibly last — for Scherzer, who broke into the bigs with the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2008. Most recently, he was with the Texas Rangers before settling on that one-year deal the Jays made official this week.
Along the way, Scherzer has pitched 2,878 innings and brings a wealth of experience and wily strategy to a veteran pitching staff that needed some depth. He’s also confident that he can remain healthy — a process abetted by the Jays medical staff and pitching coach Pete Walker, who have adroitly kept their starters throwing healthily in recent seasons.
“I’ve had a very good off-season so far, been able to do everything normal,” Scherzer said. “I’m looking forward to coming into spring training full tilt, happy to be in my normal routine and hope to see the benefits of that.”
For most starters, sustained success in a season is all about rhythm — a proper buildup, regular work and staying in the rotation. In 2024, that didn’t happen for Scherzer, an outlier for the keen competitor, who managed just 43 innings and change for the Rangers.
“You get into mid-season form when you’re consistent, you’re going out there making starts and starting and start out, you’re not getting hurt,” Scherzer said. “Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for me last year.
“I feel if I can stay healthy … I can pitch at a very high level here. I probably (have) all the pitches to be able to navigate a lineup. If I can get myself in that position where my arm’s resilient, my arm’s bouncing back well, I feel I can go out there and navigate some lineups.”
Scherzer, a two-time World Series champion (first with the Washington Nationals in 2019 and then with the Rangers in 2023), is sure to mesh well with other seasoned players like Bryan Berrios, Chris Bassitt, and Kevin Gausman.
In that way, he offers some starting depth that could be compared to an ace, which is a significant improvement over the precarious lack of it manager John Schneider had to deal with for the previous two seasons.
What Scherzer believes the Jays offer on the field, however, is the biggest cheerleader for Schneider, Atkins, and a fan base still feeling abandoned after a 2024 season that finished in last place.
“I’m not just playing to play,” Scherzer said. “I want to play to win. I really feel like the Toronto Blue Jays offer that.
“I felt comfortable with what Toronto was offering, what they were doing and what their outlook was for 2025 and that they’re in an all-in position.”
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