ESPN
Jan 30, 2025, 05:09 PM ET
Free-agent right-hander Max Scherzer and the Toronto Blue Jays have agreed to a one-year, $15.5 million contract, sources told ESPN's Jeff Passan on Thursday.
The future Hall of Famer, who turned 40 last July, is coming off an injury-plagued season with the Texas Rangers in which he made just nine starts and went 2-4 with a 3.95 ERA. He didn't make his first start until June 23 following surgery in the offseason to repair a herniated disk in his back. He then missed all of August with shoulder fatigue, returning to make one start in September before a hamstring injury ended his season.
Once a durable workhorse who made 30-plus starts each season from 2009 through 2018, Scherzer has now missed significant time each of the past three seasons, making 23 starts in 2022 while missing time with an oblique strain and making 27 starts in 2023 due to a strained shoulder and back spasms.
When he did pitch, the stuff was diminished, even from the previous season. His fastball averaged 92.5 mph, the lowest of his career and down from 93.7 mph in 2023. His strikeout rate dropped to 22.6%, down from 28.0%, and well below his 2021-22 season, when he was over 30%. He allowed a .724 OPS, higher than the MLB average of .711.
Scherzer was a free agent for the third time in his career. Ahead of the 2015 season, he signed a seven-year, $210 million contract with the Washington Nationals that proved to be one of the best signings ever for a free-agent pitcher. Scherzer won the second and third Cy Young Awards of his career, finished in the top three in three other seasons and helped the Nationals win the World Series in 2019, going 3-0 with a 2.40 ERA that postseason, and started Game 7 of the World Series while pitching through a neck injury.
He was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2021 in the final year of that contract and then signed a three-year deal, $130 million deal with the New York Mets, the highest annual average value for a player at the time (matched a year later by Justin Verlander and then surpassed by Shohei Ohtani in 2024). The Mets made the playoffs that first year as Scherzer posted a 2.23 ERA, but he was traded to the Rangers in 2023 -- and helped them to a World Series title, although injuries limited him to just 9.2 innings in three postseason starts (he did pitch three scoreless innings in his one World Series start).
The eight-time All-Star is 216-112 in his career with the three Cy Young Awards and 75.4 WAR. Among active pitchers, only Verlander has more wins and only Verlander and Clayton Kershaw have a higher WAR.
ESPN's David Schoenfield contributed to this report.