Max Scherzer is coming off an injury-riddled season in which he posted a 2-4 record and a 3.95 ERA across nine starts. The 40-year-old right-hander had difficulty staying healthy last season, but his track record of elite performance over the years can’t be overlooked. Despite his age and recent injury history, Scherzer still has the potential to provide valuable innings, and teams are looking at him as a capable starter.<\/p>\n
According to MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand<\/a>, the Toronto Blue Jays “appear the most serious about signing,” Scherzer, making them one of the top suitors in a market with many potential landing spots for the veteran. If he joins the Blue Jays, Scherzer would complement a rotation that includes Kevin Gausman, Jos\u00e9 Berr\u00edos, and Chris Bassitt. Together, they could form a formidbale pitching staff capable of competing for a postseason spot in the competitive American League.<\/p>\n One source noted to Feinsand, “Toronto has been hot for him for about two months… [The Blue Jays] feel like the favorites to get him.”<\/p>\n Another source who watched Scherzer throw recently said to Feinsand, “He looked like Max Scherzer… His Cy Young days are defintely behind him, but he’s still good enough to be an effective starter.”<\/p>\n The Blue Jays roster moves this winter could play a key role in their ability to land Scherzer. With their sights set on competing, Toronto may need to add another key piece<\/a>\u2014whether it\u2019s a big bat or another arm\u2014to prove their commitment to building a championship-caliber team.<\/p>\n As one source put it,”Is Scherzer more concerned with how much money he gets or he potential for winning? He’s already earned over $300 million, so it stands to reason that joining a competitive team is his biggest priority.” This speaks to the idea that while financial compensation is always important, Scherzer may be more interested in the possibility of winning another World Series in the twilight of his career.<\/p>\n Scherzer’s contract is expected to fall in the $15 million range for a one-year deal, per Spotrac<\/a>. It’s similar to the contracts signed by Alex Cobb<\/a> and Justin Verlander<\/a> this offseason. With the Blue Jays already committing over $140 million to Anthony Santander, Jeff Hoffman and Yimi Garc\u00eda, and absorbing about $109 million in the acquisitions of Andr\u00e9s Gim\u00e9nez and Myles Straw, they clearly aren’t afraid to spend in order to improve their roster. Despite their large commitments this offseason, the Blue Jays are still in a position to add another high-profile player like Scherzer to the rotation.<\/p>\n It could be a strong move as they aim to remain in contention in the tough AL East.<\/p>\n Main Photo: \u00a9 Tim Heitman-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Max Scherzer is coming off an injury-riddled season in which he posted a 2-4 record and a 3.95 ERA across nine starts. The 40-year-old right-hander had difficulty staying healthy last season, but his track record of elite performance over the years can’t be overlooked. Despite his age and recent injury history, Scherzer still has the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3686,"featured_media":94847,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1071,7],"tags":[1121,2824,4223,4352,1043,247,1331,79,3494],"class_list":["post-94837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mlb","category-bluejays","tag-alex-cobb","tag-anthony-santander","tag-chris-bassitt","tag-jeff-hoffman","tag-jose-berrios","tag-justin-verlander","tag-kevin-gausman","tag-max-scherzer","tag-yimi-garcia"],"modified_by":"Matt Graves","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3686"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=94837"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94848,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/94837\/revisions\/94848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/94847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=94837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=94837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/baseball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=94837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Blue Jays Interest in Max Scherzer<\/h2>\n
Contract Expectations and the Blue Jays Spending Plans<\/h3>\n