What’s wrong with all of you? There’s a perfectly good Max Scherzer just sitting there on the free agent market and nobody has bothered to pick him up yet. Fine, not every team has an extra $200 million lying around, but there has got to be someone out there who wants to sign a 30-year old free agent pitcher just one year removed from winning the AL Cy Young only to put up virtually identical numbers last year. Won’t somebody please sign Max Scherzer?
How about you, Detroit Tigers, even one of your own executives recently said that you “have to have him.” So have him already, why don’t you? Honestly, he fits your team the best. The Tigers have a pretty hefty payroll already, but there is no team in baseball in more of a “win now” mode. What better way to win now than having Scherzer as part of an already star-laden rotation.
Besides, that rotation isn’t exactly what it used to be. Rick Porcello finally got good, but then got traded. Anibal Sanchez is a major question mark regarding his ability to stay healthy. Nobody really knows what exactly is going with Justin Verlander. Having Scherzer join the rotation and displacing Alfredo Simon or Shane Green will go a long way towards keeping the Detroit as contenders, especially with the big step forward the White Sox took this offseason and the Royals and Indians both emerging as real threats in recent years.
Or maybe the New York Yankees should step up and cut Scherzer a check. Don’t think we don’t see you sitting there pretending like you care about financial cost control, Yankees. You’re already going to spend over $200 million to field a team that as of right now doesn’t seem like a legit World Series threat. The lineup is solid, but the rotation is currently relying on Masahiro Tanaka’s elbow not exploding, Nate Eovaldi learning how to strike people out, Michael Pineda not crumbling into dust and the remnants of CC Sabathia. You think that maybe, just maybe, adding an elite ace with as clean a bill of health as any 30-year old MLB pitcher can have might be able to help? No, you’re right, you’ll be just fine with… Chris Capuano? Hmm, that’s unfortunate.
No, signing Max Scherzer is something a smart team would do. A smart team like, oh, I don’t know, the St. Louis Cardinals. They seemingly conjure up ace pitchers out of thin air and Cardinal magic, but even they need a little outside help now and then. Like the Tigers, the Cardinals have to worry about a divisional threat growing in Chicago while still trying to fend off the likes of the Pirates, Brewers and maybe even the Reds. They also have to worry if Adam Wainwright’s elbow and Michael Wacha’s shoulder aren’t ticking time bombs. That’s before even worrying if Carlos Martinez can make the transition to the rotation or if John Lackey is going to spend all year pouting about playing for the league minimum salary. Yeah, a smart team like St. Louis Cardinals would go out and get themselves a Max Scherzer, even if it meant extending their payroll beyond the point where they are normally comfortable.
Screw it. Smarts don’t even really need to play into this. I almost forgot that Scott Boras is his agent. He’s going to the highest bidder, even if it is the Long Island Ducks. That almost assuredly mean that the Los Angeles Dodgers are going to swoop in and add him to the Kershaw, Greinke and Ryu group, which with Scherzer would be the most dominant rotation in baseball and possibly even so good that they could achieve global domination like a Bond villain. Let’s just start calling the Dodgers rotation SPECTRE now. Not that the rotation isn’t already great, but if they don’t sign Scherzer, their fifth starter is the three games they’ll get out of Brett Anderson before he goes on the disabled list.
Seriously, one of those four teams needs to get off their duff and get Max Scherzer signed to a contract tout de suite. He’s too good and those teams need him too badly for this farce to go on.
