Mariners (Gilbert) vs Blue Jays (Scherzer): 08/30/26, 1:37 PM

[max silver]

34 minutes ago, jaysblue said:

Outside of that Tampa start (and not all of that was even his fault), Scherzer was actually a pretty reliable arm for us in August: 6 starts, 3.63 ERA, 32.1 IP and 28 Ks. Gotta love it.

I’d seriously consider bringing Mad Max back next season on a similar type of deal, with the expectation that you’re only really counting on him for 10–15 starts in the second half. If he can give you stretches like the one he just had in August, there’s still plenty of value there. It certainly doesn’t hurt having an arm like his around as extra rotation depth, especially once injuries inevitably start piling up.

 

I'm pretty lukewarm on the idea of bringing Scherzer back for another season. If anything I'd like the guy to recognize that he's accomplished plenty in his career and is likely a surefire hall of famer and he has nothing left to prove to anyone. If I recall correctly he underwent something like 4 injections in his thumb during his latest IL stint and this isn't sustainable long term and eventually there will be a price to be paid.

My main concern is that Max just doesn't offer any kind of reliability to know that he would be healthy enough to pitch effectively when you need him. The club is all but certain to be searching for rotation upgrades for next season and with better rotation health the team would likely have a hard time finding a spot for him to pitch. At the end of the day there's little guarantee that he would be able to keep his body healthy enough for another kick at the can next season given the ever growing laundry list of injury issues he's been faced with.

[jaysblue]

8 hours ago, max silver said:

I'm pretty lukewarm on the idea of bringing Scherzer back for another season. If anything I'd like the guy to recognize that he's accomplished plenty in his career and is likely a surefire hall of famer and he has nothing left to prove to anyone. If I recall correctly he underwent something like 4 injections in his thumb during his latest IL stint and this isn't sustainable long term and eventually there will be a price to be paid.

My main concern is that Max just doesn't offer any kind of reliability to know that he would be healthy enough to pitch effectively when you need him. The club is all but certain to be searching for rotation upgrades for next season and with better rotation health the team would likely have a hard time finding a spot for him to pitch. At the end of the day there's little guarantee that he would be able to keep his body healthy enough for another kick at the can next season given the ever growing laundry list of injury issues he's been faced with.

I agree, and it’s not like bringing him back would be anywhere near the top of my offseason priority list. I wouldn’t even necessarily sign him over the winter and have him come to spring training. But if you had some sort of understanding with him that you’d revisit things around June and could bring him back for $2–3M, I’d definitely be open to that as second-half rotation insurance.

He also seems to genuinely like it in Toronto considering he came back here this season for pretty much pennies compared to what he’s made throughout his career. Obviously, the hope is that everyone in the rotation or at least four of them stays healthy enough to make 30+ starts. But we know that’s rarely how a season actually plays out. Having someone like Scherzer available in the second half could end up being pretty valuable if injuries start piling up again or if the team needs to rest some starters/monitor workloads before October.