Risky Business

Last night, the Rangers looked to go up three games to none against the Astros behind thirty-nine year old Max Scherzer. Didn’t happen. Scherzer got pounded for five runs, all earned, over four innings in a 8-5 Houston win. The inevitable question becomes, is Scherzer done? No, one game does not end a career, short of injury. But it can affect a reputation. In this case, the reputation could use some readjusting. Scherzer has an exceptional 214-108 career record with a 3.15 ERA. That’s who the Mets thought they were getting when they signed him to a three-year $130 million contract back in 2021. Scherzer went 11-5 for New York in 2022 with a 2.29 ERA and 9-4 this season with a 4.01 ERA before his trade to Texas. The Mets spent a lot of money on a pitcher who has won twenty games just once in his career and last won as many as eighteen in 2018. On top of that, Scherzer has been so-so in the postseason, yesterday’s loss putting him at 7-8 with a 3.80 ERA. You can make a counterargument that Scherzer is the guy who gets his club into the playoffs, where teammates can take over, but you don’t have to be Jerry Reinsdorf to point out that going a combined 13-6 with a 3.77 ERA at age thirty-nine is not exactly earning your salary. That was the risk the Mets took and now the Rangers. It will be interesting to see what happens if and when Scherzer’s former teammate on the Mets pitches for the Astros. Justin Verlander is forty and 17-12 in the postseason. Oh, for a Scherzer-Verlander matchup.