Blue Jays Re-sign Scherzer

[Jays24]

[BTS]

Hell yeah 

[Jays24]

We got our new closer baby.  Hes going on a Smoltz run now lol

[Jonn]

So is he bumping Berrios out? Are they going with a 6-man? We know Bieber won't be ready to start the Season and they don't want Yesavage to get a full season work load. I don't imagine its a Bullpen move. It will be interesting to see what the play is here.

[Spanky__99]

 

[L54]

It’s so bad ass that the brown and blue eyed assassin wants to continue his career as a Blue Jay for 3M bucks 

[max silver]

I find it hard to be terribly excited about this news. Scherzer could barely stay healthy and when he was on the mound he was generally incapable of keeping the ball in the ballpark. 

[max silver]

1 hour ago, Jays24 said:

We got our new closer baby.  Hes going on a Smoltz run now lol

People hated Hoffman as closer largely due to the platter of meatball sandwiches he tended to serve up. Scherzer was actually worse in this regard and is likely a terrible choice to be a closer on a team with intentions of competing for a title.

[L54]

35 minutes ago, max silver said:

I find it hard to be terribly excited about this news. Scherzer could barely stay healthy and when he was on the mound he was generally incapable of keeping the ball in the ballpark. 

Hes going to be a cheerleader it’s going to be fine 

[max silver]

1 hour ago, L54 said:

Hes going to be a cheerleader it’s going to be fine 

That's either the best or worst case scenario depending on your perspective. At least the contract will be cheap if he spends most of the season on the IL.

[jaysblue]

6 hours ago, BTS said:

Hell yeah 

What inside information did you have? You picked him up in every fantasy league at 5pm yesterday haha. 

[jaysblue]

At that price point, there’s virtually no downside. You’re talking about a future Hall of Famer with elite postseason experience, championship pedigree, and one of the most competitive mentalities in the game for depth money.

The signing provides:

- Rotation insurance if injuries hit
- Veteran stability behind the top arms
- Mentorship for younger starters
- Playoff-caliber experience in high-leverage games

[jaysblue]

Also to note, Detroit signed Verlander to $13M a couple weeks ago. 

Give me Scherzer at $3M over Verlander at $13M every day of the week. 

[Ryu In My House]

I wonder if this means we will try to ship Berrios out, if he starts off strong and we can find a taker, or maybe we ship out a disgruntled Lauer for something. Either way, I can't see Scherzer starting until May or June. It will be interesting.

[saskjayfan]

6 hours ago, Jonn said:

So is he bumping Berrios out? Are they going with a 6-man? We know Bieber won't be ready to start the Season and they don't want Yesavage to get a full season work load. I don't imagine its a Bullpen move. It will be interesting to see what the play is here.

They keep saying Bieber is only a couple weeks behind.  Something has to give.  You have a 26 and 40 man roster.  You can't carry 7 starters.  Max as a bullpen option?  Berrios traded?  Something has to give.

[Leo Morgenstern]

1 hour ago, jaysblue said:

Also to note, Detroit signed Verlander to $13M a couple weeks ago. 

Give me Scherzer at $3M over Verlander at $13M every day of the week. 

For sure. But I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the incentives in Scherzer’s deal could bring it up to $13 million. And I wouldn’t be surprised if those incentives are quite easy for him to hit

[Laika]

6 minutes ago, saskjayfan said:

They keep saying Bieber is only a couple weeks behind.  Something has to give.  You have a 26 and 40 man roster.  You can't carry 7 starters.  Max as a bullpen option?  Berrios traded?  Something has to give.

Normally the elbows start to give out 

These things solve themselves 

[BTS]

Teams never have too many starters. Even when it feels like it. Someone is going to get hurt, and if they somehow make it to April before that happens they’ll just move Berrios to long relief and have Scherzer build up for a few extra weeks. 

[saskjayfan]

10 minutes ago, BTS said:

Teams never have too many starters. Even when it feels like it. Someone is going to get hurt, and if they somehow make it to April before that happens they’ll just move Berrios to long relief and have Scherzer build up for a few extra weeks. 

I get it, but if we're 3 weeks into the season and Max is ready, Bieber is ready and yesavage, Gaus, Ponce, Cease, Berrios are all healthy it's going to get awkward..lol

[Brownie19]

7 hours ago, max silver said:

I find it hard to be terribly excited about this news. Scherzer could barely stay healthy and when he was on the mound he was generally incapable of keeping the ball in the ballpark. 

C'mon man.  June/July was incredible.  Just enjoy having a 1st ballot HOF bulldog on the team again.  He might be able to use that aching old arm one more time to push the sun back up in the sky and give us one more glorious summer.

[glory]

Max gutting out 4+ innings in Game 7 of the World Series and leaving with the lead and a standing ovation was a great moment. Not sure I'd trust him to start a playoff game in 2026, but this move is clearly designed to get through 162. The SP depth in AAA isn't great so having 8 MLB starters isn't a bad thing. 

[Laika]

48 minutes ago, saskjayfan said:

I get it, but if we're 3 weeks into the season and Max is ready, Bieber is ready and yesavage, Gaus, Ponce, Cease, Berrios are all healthy it's going to get awkward..lol

They would just run a 6 man rotation for a bit and have the awkward but necessary conversations with two of Max, Berrios, Lauer about pitching in the pen. 

Realistically there is almost no chance this entire group is healthy and above replacement level at the same time:

• Cease - probably the only one with an A health grade and is about as low risk as a starter can be, unless you think five straight clean seasons is a downside because of accumulated wear and tear 
• Gausman - 35 years old, huge workload recently + recent velocity decline scares
• Yesavage - weird mechanics, rookie, will have his workload monitored 
• Bieber - massive injury risk, turning 31 
• Ponce - turning 32, big error bars on his projections/performance, also had a MASSIVE workload bump in 2025 
• Berrios - turning 32 this year, big performance and injury risk
• Scherzer - 41 years old, chronic injuries in recent years
• Lauer - turning 31 and has a 92 Stuff+. If we are being honest he's a swingman anyway. 

 

[Laika]

5 minutes ago, glory said:

Max gutting out 4+ innings in Game 7 of the World Series and leaving with the lead and a standing ovation was a great moment. Not sure I'd trust him to start a playoff game in 2026, but this move is clearly designed to get through 162. The SP depth in AAA isn't great so having 8 MLB starters isn't a bad thing. 

Yes the MiLB SP depth is no good. Bloss returning from surgery, Francis done, Tiedemann basically doesn't exist, Macko and most others don't actually look like SP candidates or guys who could eat any innings. 

So you have... Lazaro Estrada? And then some guys who have barely sniffed AA like Grant Rogers, Fernando Perez, and Stanifer. 

[The_DH]

I'm pretty sure this was a foregone conclusion -- that he'd be back.  When I saw Ricky T wearing 33 instead of the 31 that he always wants to wear, I knew it was being held back for a reason.  

[Terminator]

2 hours ago, saskjayfan said:

I get it, but if we're 3 weeks into the season and Max is ready, Bieber is ready and yesavage, Gaus, Ponce, Cease, Berrios are all healthy it's going to get awkward..lol

Just phantom IL some of them. Problem solved.

[Terminator]

And btw I was saying it made sense to bring Max back all offseason.

No one really ridiculed me for it so I don't think any apologies are necessary but maybe some kudos would be nice?

[Brownie19]

2 hours ago, The_DH said:

I'm pretty sure this was a foregone conclusion -- that he'd be back.  When I saw Ricky T wearing 33 instead of the 31 that he always wants to wear, I knew it was being held back for a reason.  

Good observation.  It would be neat to see if that was the reason.  

[G-Snarls]

 

 

[Eat My Shatkins]

It was pretty evident at the end of last season from Sherzer's interviews that he was very likely to return to Toronto when the dust settled.

[Eat My Shatkins]