After striking out Asdrubal Cabrera of the Arizona Diamondbacks, Washington Nationals starter Max Scherzer has passed Cy Young in the career strikeouts leaderboards with 2,804. This puts Scherzer 22nd in strikeouts behind a whopping 16 Hall of Famers and one future Hall of Famer, Justin Verlander. Now, Scherzer is 10 strikeouts away from passing Mike Mussina for 21st on the list.
Max Scherzer Passes Cy Young in Career Strikeouts with 2,804
While Max Scherzer is already a lock for the Hall of Fame, this is another milestone in his magnificent career. Scherzer has completed this feat in just over 2370 innings, which is 288th all-time, making the feat even more impressive.
Per nine innings, Scherzer is third all-time at slightly under 10.7 strikeouts, behind Chris Sale and Yu Darvish. Another important stat for Scherzer is his strikeout-to-walk ratio. He is ninth all-time in this department, despite struggling with command early in his career.
Furthermore, since signing with the Nationals in 2015 on a seven-year, $210 million contract, Scherzer’s strikeout totals have gone up. He has 1484 strikeouts and 11.8 strikeouts per nine innings with the Nationals. He also has a flawless 5.9 strikeout-to-walk ratio. 52.9% of his strikeouts have come in the Nation’s Capital, including a 20-strikeout game against his former team (Detroit Tigers), while 47.7% of his career innings pitched have come in DC, highlighting the uptick.
At age 36, Scherzer’s stuff, including fastball velocity and command, have remained solid, despite his 1.1 miles per hour dip from last season. It would not be out of the question for Scherzer to continue to pitch at a high level over this year and the next two seasons. That could put Walter Johnson’s strikeout standing, ninth all-time, in reach with 3509 strikeouts.
A Hall of Fame talent, competitor, and pitcher, Max Scherzer is still adding to his magnificent MLB legacy.
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Players Mentioned: Asdrubal Cabrera, Max Scherzer, Cy Young, Justin Verlander, Mike Mussina, Chris Sale, Yu Darvish, Walter Johnson
